The Needle Has Landed

TOP 30 JAMS OF 2010

2010-12-11T11:59:00.003-05:00

1. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
2. The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt
3. Harlem - Hippies
4. The Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
5. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
6. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
7. Best Coast - Crazy For You
8. Band Of Horses - Infinite Arms
9. Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises
10. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
11. Warpaint - The Fool
12. Wolf Parade - Expo '86
13. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
14. Twin Shadow - Forget
15. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
16. Beach House - Teen Dream
17. The National - High Violet
18. Crocodiles - Sleep Forever
19. Gayngs - Relayted
20. Vampire Weekend - Contra
21. Lower Dens - Twin-Hand Movement
22. Wavves - King Of The Beach
23. Woods - At Echo Lake
24. Jesse Malin & The St. Marks Social - Love It To Life
25. The Soft Pack - S/T
26. Wild Nothing - Gemini
27. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
28. The Whigs - In The Dark
29. The Books - The Way Out
30. The Album Leaf - A Chorus Of Storytellers

top 50 of 2010

2010-12-09T14:12:00.001-05:00

1. margot and the nuclear so and so's - buzzard
2. band of horses - infinite arms
3. home video - the automatic process
4. delorean - subiza
5. max richter - infra
6. beach fossills - s/t
7. surfer blood - astro coast
8. midlake - the courage of others
9 best coast - crazy for you
10.jesse malin - love it to life
11. butch walker - i liked it better when you had no heart
12. stars - the five ghosts
13. against me - white crosses
14. beach house - teen dream
15. the national - high violet
16. deerhunter - halcyon digest
17. brmc -beat the devils tattoo
18. julian lynch - mare
19. salem - king night
20. vampire weekend - contra
21. joanna newsom - have one on me
22. harlem - hippies
23. the black angels - the phosphene dream
24. tame impala - innerspeaker
25. goldmund - famous places
26. shearwater - the golden archipelago
27. the books - the way out
28. ted leo - the brutalist bricks
29. orion - s/t
30. tallest man on earth - the wild hunt
31. lower dens - twin handed movement
32. emeralds - does it look like i'm here
33. radio people - s/t
34. spoon - transference
35. shout out louds - work
36. interpol -s/t
37. weezer - hurley
38. woods - at echo lake
39. strange boys - be brave
40. sam quinn - the fake that sunk a thousand ships
41. belle & sebastian - write about love
42. jimmy eat world - invented
43. the coral - butterfly house
44. jewel - sweet and wild
45. toyko police club - champ
46. dylan leblanc - paupers field
47. the album leaf - a chorus of storytellers
48. holy fuck - latin
49. bss - forgiveness rock record
50. wild nothing - gemini

2010.5

2010-06-30T07:39:00.001-04:00

it is what it is. i've listened to all these fine recordings........ALOT!

1. band of horses - infinite arms
2. beach house - teen dream
3. stars - the five ghosts
4. jewel - sweet and wild
5. orion - s\t
6. butch walker - i liked you better when you had no heart
7. against me - white crosses
8. jesse malin - love it to life
9. shout out louds - work
10. midlake - the courage of others
11. surfer blood - astro coast
12. the national - high violet
13. harlem - hippes
14. woods - echo lake
15. joanna newsom - have one on me
16. sam quinn - the fake that sunk a thousand ships
17. bss - forgivness rock record
18. gaslight anthem - american slang
19. the tallest man on earth - the wild hunt
20. strange boys - be brave

Lady Gaga - A Takedown of 'The Fame Monster'

2010-02-04T15:37:00.002-05:00

I once lived in a fairy tale world where the only place I had ever run into Lady Gaga was interweb news articles about how weird she dressed. Her music? Limited to less-than-3 second bursts, and watching Cartman do 'Poker Face' on South Park (didn't even know it was a Lady Ga Ga song, until then). Oh, how sweet those old days were!

You see, back then, I had a strange fascination and appreciation for Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, or Germie, as I like to call her. I remember the first time I ever saw her was wearing that crazy Kermit outfit that I'd seen previously somewhere else. Now, it's not easy being green, but Gaga really pulled that look off. I mean, look at that! It's just glorious.

Then there was the whole 'Lady Gaga' has a penis thing, which I didn't quite understand...she ain't got no dick, guys! I mean, she's not exactly the hottest Pop Star, but she's not a fucking man. I laughed, nonetheless, and would click links that debated whether or not her junk was bigger than Justin Timberlake's whenever I saw them on buzzfeed.com.

I started to appreciate her Pop Sensibility...remember, I had still not paid a damn bit of attention to her actual craft, singing pop music, but rather, I started to appreciate that when she made headlines, it was usually just weird eccentric stuff; crazy outfits, wild live shows, falling down on stage...shit like that. She's weird, and drives press that way, but she's not exploiting herself in some shameful way, like Jersey Shore and other 'Reality TV' is training the youngsters of today's Pop Culture World to do.

This, to me, was a breath of fresh air. Even if she sucked musically, at least she kept it truly real. No drug stories, no sex tape, no sniping with the West Coast Lady Gaga about who has the best vinyl prom dress for their date with the Queen of England. And hell, we haven't really had a good Pop Diva live show like hers since Madonna's 'Truth or Dare' tour!

So it was with trepidation that I chose to actually wade into her music. The first chink in my Gaga armor was around the time of Pitchfork's year end lists, when Gaga had something like 3 of the 5 top ranked pop songs, as voted by Pitchfork readers. I mean, what the hell? That's just craziness. I pondered whether there was some value in liking her 'ironically', in some sort of backwards Indie Rock way...like, maybe she drew influences from some lost genre of awesomeness.

Then, I saw the Pitchfork review of her latest album, 'The Fame Monster'. A 7.6?!?!?!, I mean, that's higher than they scored freaking 'Hazards of Love' last year. All the while, I'm seeing nothing but crazy images of this chick, playing in front of huge crowds...her album is getting rave reviews from all the media outlets. It's a 76 on Metacritic, and that's saying something, since some of those outlets don't normally review this genre, and aren't set up to be overly flattering to it.

So I broke down and found a torrent. My initial surprise at the length of the album (it's only 8 tracks) again made me step back and think about what was going on...Does she have amazing self-editing powers, choosing not to throw three singles in with 7 filler tracks and 2 remixes? I mean, this is totally unheard of in this day and age! As Roxio worked it's magic on my blank circular, soon to be obsolete disc, I actually had a moment of anticipation to hear this thing. I even pondered the egg on my face for having dismissed her all this time, and wondered if we might be ushering in a new era of Pop Music; one where we could actually depend on the artist to deliver on some promises, rather than just suck the (failing) industry's tit.

Then I hit play, and all that came crashing down. The opener, which I guess is a single, 'Bad Romance'...let's just say it's catchy. Catchy like the fucking clap. It's got a rehashed 80's/90's Skate Rink beat, bad Cher-esque 'oh-oh's', and (thankfully) barely recognizable cliched ass lyrics. That, my friends, is highlight of this clusterfuck. The second track, which I think is about lusting after a Mexican guy, might be the worst song I have ever heard. It's like Ace of Base threw up all over Shakira, and Britney Spears's dog lapped it all up. And I'm being as nice as I can be. I listened to this whole thing, twice. I promised myself after the first go that I wouldn't do it again, but I made myself give it another try. MISTAKE. It's even worse upon a second listening.

So listen, kids. When you are looking for inspiration for your next big pop album, take a listen to what Lady Gaga says:

"I spent a lot of nights in Eastern Europe, and this album is a pop experimentation with industrial/Goth beats, 90's dance melodies, an obsession with the lyrical genius of 80's melancholic pop, and the runway. I wrote while watching muted fashion shows and I am compelled to say my music was scored for them."

And then do EXACTLY the opposite. As a performance art piece, I think she's pretty damned brilliant. Hell, I want to wear Kermit outfits, and make the Queen of England chuckle, too! As a musician, she's turning over old leaves...ones that we should have burned and destroyed a long time ago.

Mountain Man

2010-01-22T09:02:00.000-05:00

Everyone needs some good folk in their life. These guys are doing it right

<a href="http://mountainman.bandcamp.com/album/mountain-man">ANIMAL TRACKS by Mountain Man</a>

Album Review - Vampire Weekend 'Contra'

2010-01-19T10:52:00.003-05:00

I love Contra. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start...you know what I'm talking about! There's not a greater feeling in the world than taking out a huge alien egg pod with the spread gun...Oh, this isn't the place where we talk about Nintendo games from the 80's? This is the forum for discussion on today's best Paul Simon clone? My bad. We can do that too!

I have to admit, the release of Vampire Weekend's new album snuck up on me. I was still reeling from my enormous undertaking from the end year...writing capsules for those 100 albums nearly killed me. And the fallout from the peanut gallery...'How could such and such be 3 albums ahead of my favorite album! Your entire list is compromised!' Perhaps the most vocal criticism of my Top-100 list was leveled at the placement of Vampire Weekend's first album, which I think I put at #22, conveniently in front of the trifecta of Ryan Adams releases from 2005. You'd have think I dropped an atomic bomb on Ryan Adams's entire legacy. Suddenly, this ranking defined my musical tastes in a way that I was not prepared for. I just dig that Vampire Weekend album...a lot. It's catchy, has no serious flaws, and reminds me of my childhood safaris in Africa.

So, with trepidation, I listened to this new Vampire Weekend release, worried that I'd have some kind of internal backlash against liking it, since so much of my musical existence suddenly hinged on whether or not it was good. This, on the backs of low expectations, in general, had me worried that I'd find this album as attractive as a double shot of leprosy and AIDS. Even before my Top-100 list, I'd have given them 50/50 odds of spitting out total crap for their follow up...I mean, there were many reasons to expect them to fail (or, at least be lackluster). For instance:

1. The hype factor - My god, the hype! We all remember 2007, when the 'blue CD-R' floated around with a bunch of tracks from these guys, and everyone 'in the know' hopped directly on the bandwagon. This was followed by wide release, and a continued 'ZOMG, these guys are awesome' rampage, that included a very high profile small venue tour, and good press from basically every media outlet in existence. It looked like one of those PR masterpieces, where everything falls together, just like the marketing department drew it up. Music isn't made for PR, though, so wouldn't two years of getting their dicks sucked by EVERYONE go to their heads, resulting in an abortion of a sophomore release? Isn't our society built around building people up as high as we can, only to tear them down the second they show themselves to be less than perfect?

2. The douche factor - I bought the new LP, and I half expected it to come with a Ezra Koenig limited edition J Crew sweater vest, a thesaurus, and a coupon for 50% off your next visit to Starbucks. These guys put the 'indie hipster douchebag' in Indie Hipster Douchebag. Elitist, pretentious, and excruciatingly trendy. I sometimes feel like Starbucks threw up on me when I get through listening to them.

3. The copycat factor - Everybody and your Mom is now putting out syncopated African styled pop beats. The market is flush with Peter Gabriel retro-love. 14 year olds everywhere are getting into Paul Simon's 'Graceland', instead of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. This equals backlash, backlash, backlash. Especially amongst the trendiest of the Indie Hipster Douchebags, who can't afford to buy this year's sweatervests, because they are spending all their money on Animal Collective remixes.

Vampire Weekend, backs against the wall, did the unexpected, however. They went out and made the 'Eff You' album of the year, revisiting everything they did right on their debut...but reinventing themselves in the process. They have essentially taken what they do best, and put it right back out there. I'd call this album 'triumphant', but since they have egos the size of the moon, already, I'd rather go with 'they met their own expectations'. The pretentiousness? It's still steeped in here, but it's not quite as Oxford Comma-ish. The lead track, for example, probably raised the Google ranking of the obscure beverage Horchata well beyond it's cousins Komboucha and Kefir. Luckily, that shit is catchy, or I'd curse them for that. If Starbucks is listening, I'd get that crap on your menu ASAP.

Overall, though, I'm impressed with the maturation of the lyrical content. It doesn't feel like a bunch of poetry some Lib Arts major scribbled on the back of his retro Trapper Keeper, this go-round. Couple that with stronger production values, and more intricate musical composition, and you can see why I'm high on this thing. Take the first single, 'Cousins', which is a complex, odd rhythm (ska? Cali-surf rock? Where my Africa at, Ezra!?!?), and non-sensical (so it can't piss you off with pretentiousness!) lyrics...I think it's the highlight of the album.

So, is it as good as their first album? It's catchy as hell...Horchata, White Sky, Diplomat's Son, Cousins...all these could have found a home on that first album's lineup. But I don't find it quite as accessible. This could be due to the fact that I'm a virgin listener to this new one...I've got maybe 5 spins on it. That first album...hell, it's like the back of my hand, at this point. Familiarity will determine this one's legacy, but by the Out of the Box litmus test, this release far exceeds my expectations.

Score: 9.1 Sweater Vests

top 60 of '09

2010-01-02T12:11:00.003-05:00

here she is:

1. grizzly bear - veckatimest
2. the antlers - hospice
3. vetiver - tight knit
4. jonsi and alex - riceboy sleeps
5. the rural alberta advantage - hometowns
6. phoenix - wolfgang amadeus phoenix
7. animal collective - mpp
8. mountains - choral
9. the avett brothers - i and love and you
10. atlas sound - logos
11. sonic youth - the eternal
12. holopaw - oh glory, oh wilderness
13. metric - fantasies
14. nurses - apples acre
15. third eye blind - ursa major
16. silversun pickups - swoon
17. our lady peace - burn burn burn
18. gomez - the rising tide
19. the dodos - time to die
20. conor oberst - outer south
21. ducktails - landscapes
22. langhorne slim - be set free
22. the cribs - ignore the ignorant
23. great lakes swimmers - lost channels
24. megafaun - gather form and fly
25. ben kweller - changing horses
26. bonnie prince billy - beware
27. real estate - s/t
28. mum - sing along to songs you don't know
29. andrew bird - noble beast
30. girls - album
31. maria taylor - ladyluck
32. david bazan - curse your branches
33. the veils - sungangs
34. here we go magic - s/t
35. woods - songs of shame
36. magnolia electric co - josephine
37. imogen heap - elipse
38. the maccabees - wall of arms
39. the warlocks - the mirror explodes
40. harlem shakes - technicolor health
41. sunset rubdown - dragonslayer
42. throw me the statue - creaturesque
43. mount eerie - the winds poem
44. jason lytle - yours truly, the commuter
45. sleeping at last - storyboards
46. the blackheart procession - six
47. sea wolf - white water - white bloom
48. devendra banhart - what will be will be
49. built to spill - there is no enemy
50. jay reatard - watch me fail
51. tortoise - beacons of ancestorship
52. dinosaur jr. - farm
53. the fresh and onlys - grey eyed girls
54. sondre lerche - heartbeat radio
55. thee oh sees - help
56. the acrtic monkeys - humbug
57. kevin devine - brothers blood
58. dan deacon - bromst
59. papercuts - you can have what you want
60. volcano choir - unmap

Andrew's Top 20 Albums of the Decade

2009-12-31T13:40:00.001-05:00

20. Pinetop Seven - The Night's Bloom

If you aren't familiar with these guys I urge you to waste no time in investigating this album. Hell, any of their albums are a safe starting point (this one just happens to be my personal favorite). It's one of the most hauntingly gorgeous albums I've ever heard. If you feel the need to catagorize your music I guess you would classify it as Americana. Lush, cinematic, and not clinging to any one particular genre. These guys sound like what Wilco could have evolved into if they hadn't gone the dad rock route. This is art in its finest aural form.

19. The Books - Lost and Safe

This album makes me want to take up scrapbooking! What better way to spend a friday night then sprawling out on your living room floor with a shit ton of funky scissors and elmer's glue, while you pastiche the best memories from your lastest excursion the the county fair? Sounds awesome right? Let me explain myself. I imagine The Books locked away behind closed doors, spending countless house scouring through snippets of audio samples. I also imagine The Books are very picky in selecting their samples(sorta like a fat kid deciding on which toppings they want on their pizza. You know, the type of decision you don't take fucking lightly). I'm not sure how they do it, but when they piecemeal all the samples into one tapestry of sound, it comes together as one of the most coherent albums I've ever encountered. Listen closely and you're sure to hear something new with each and every listen.

18. Grizzly Bear - Horn of Plenty

I'm well aware the Yellow House was an album that bloggers the world over jizzed their collective pants over(it should be noted that I too love YH). Something about this album keeps me coming back. There is a mythical quaility to this album that I just adore. I imagine this as the soundtrack to a late night foray into the woods of some enchanted kingdom where fear and beauty potentially lurk around every corner.

17. Elliott - False Cathedrals

Man, it sure is hard to believe it's been 9 years since this beauty has been released. I always consider it a shame this band never broke through to the mainstream. To me a they are the American Radiohead. A lofty claim for a small emo band from Louisville, KY you might think? No question about it, but to me it couldn't be truer.

16. Eluvium - Talk Amongst the Trees

The cover says it all for this one. I never tire of this albums ambiance bouncing around my cranium. The hazy guitar loops almost beg you to lose yourself in them. I'm a huge fan of everything this guy does, but for whatever reason I have the most time invested into this album.

15. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Yeah, yeah we've all heard the story over and over. Every time I hear the story I feel like I should like the album a litte less. Kind of like how every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten. Despite all the hype, this work has all the calling points of an album of the decade. I suspect Justin Vernon will keep making good music but I somehow doubt he'll be able to live up to the ingenuity contained in these grooves.

14. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

I was able to find this gem of a triple LP while browsing in a local record store this year and that has made all the difference. I've always sort of admired BOC from afar, like the hot chick in your freshman economics class. You fawn over her but you would never be so bold as to engage her. Well, I took the plunge and engaged this masterpiece and it in turn engaged me like no other. This album is like Kid A on acid with more of an IDM bent. I am really looking forward to spending some more time with this album during the winter months. To me this album can be summed up in one word: glacial.

13. Animal Collective - Feels

This album is impossible to classify and I love every second of it. I hear bits of tribal, pyschedelia, prog, folk, rock and just about every other genre that you can pull out of a hat. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but somehow they make it work. This album is insanely cohesive. As varied as it sounds, it still sounds as if it was all cut from the same piece of cloth. Transition is the name of the game on this album. It nicely bridges the gap between Sung Tongs and Strawberry Jam. Currently, I happen to think this is their best work. It will be interesting to see how kind time is to Merriweather Post Pavillion. Hey Ron, they actually play instruments on this one too!

12. The Arcade Fire - Funeral

This album pretty much speaks for itself. I remember the first few times I listened to it. The experience was the equivalent of discovering an exotic island that had never been set foot on by a human. I was hearing something I'd never heard before. Something utterly breathtaking and gorgeous. It was almost like I didn't want to tell anyone about it, I wanted to keep this little island as my own special secret.

11. Mum - Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Was Ok

Wow. I don't even quite know what to say about this album other than the fact i've never heard anything remotely like this. The charms of this album have left me speechless for many years. This album makes me feel good....damn good actually(almost like I am floating through fields of the greenest grass as the sun warms my body) It has an inquisitive child-like quality that never grows old to my ears.

10. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Top notch songwriting chops + Top notch vocals = an album for the ages

(I love her use of imagery on this album, it almost has a gothic feel to it.

9. Iron & Wine - The Creek Drank the Cradle

This is the album that changed my listening habits forever. I remember my first lonely saturday night spent with this album. I wasn't sure what to make of the hushed tones and apparent intimacy. But I kept coming back to be lulled by it's gentle embrace. Fads and tastes come and go but I'm sure this album will remain with me for life.

8. My Morning Jacket - At Dawn

Of course I love Z and It Still Moves etc. However, this is the MMJ album that really does it for me. It sounds like a 74 minute and 21 second walk down a lonesome country dirt road. I'm in for the long haul. There is only one way to listen to this album and that is all the way through.

7. Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antartica

It's hard for me to believe that some suit at Epic records thought this was a good idea to release. Not because it's not awesome, just because it just doesnt seem like major label fodder. Turned out that suit was right, I hope someone gave him a raise, because after Good News.... these guys sold a fuck ton of records. This one isn't nearly as accessible as the aforementioned but if you give it some dedicated time it will reward you with benefits aplenty. This one is very much an album in the truest sense of the word.

6. Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks

It blows my feeble mind that this guy isn't more well known than he is. Hear me out people, this album is a M.A.S.T.E.R.P.I.E.C.E! He dubs himself "post classical" whatever that means or matters. But if you must have a genre for his tunes, there you have it. The album is based on Kafka's Blue Octavo Notebooks. This an absolutely moving and gorgeous gem of piano album. It brings to mind ivy clad castle turrets under a damp cloudy sky. Ah, what I am saying? Did I i just say masterpiece? Well, not in the sense that you thought I said masterpiece....Just listen to the damn thing!

5. Sigur Ros -()

This album proves that pretentious doesn't necessarily equal bad or annoying. This is a stunner of an record folks. It glistens, shimmers, and builds into one hell of a climax. If you like epic or grandiose, this is your new favorite album!

4. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Personally, this as been as big of a "grower" album as there has ever been for me. At the time I first heard this, I just didn't really care a whole lot for it. But the internet was awash buzz, so I dutifully returned to it many times over and eventually fell in love. This sounds like a short wave radio broadcast that you happened to stumble upon one very late night and were never able to remove from your subconcious. This album stays with you.

3. Wilco - A Ghost is Born

Essentially YHF and AGISB are a tie, it's just impossible for me to pick one over the other. I have a very hard time putting this album into words. Perhaps that's why I have such a strong relationship with it. I do sense a lot of pain and anguish on this record. Oh and did I mention it shreds?!

2. Ryan Adams- Hearbreaker

Where do I even begin? What would I do without his music? As you can tell, I classify myself as a blatant fan boy and I happen to think the man can do no wrong. I also love the fact that this album is named in honor of Mariah Carey.....true story. This is the perfect blend of country, rock and folk in no particular order. Emmy Lou Harris and David Rawlings bring out the best in DRA. In fact, so much so that I wish they'd all do another album together. This album is like the strange love child of Gram Parsons and Husker Du. You can definitely tell the dude has listened to a lot of punk music in his life. Even though the sound isn't technically there, the influence is undeniable.

1. Radiohead - Kid A

This album needs no introduction and my shitty descriptions would do this album a genuine disservice.

Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009

2009-12-29T15:22:00.001-05:00

Holy shit, the decade is over already. Seems just yesterday I was wearing a Hypercolor t-shirt that had a lewd pun about my golf clubs. Oh, wait, that wasn't this past decade? Whatever.

With every 10 year span comes a 10 year 'Best Of' list. We can probably thank MTV for this, though VH1 really took their baton and ran with it. Or maybe we can thank that John Cusak movie...no, not the one with the boombox, the one where he made mix tapes as an excuse for sleeping around on his girlfriend. Thanks for that, John.

So, with that, I bring you my own personal Top-100 Albums of the Naughts. I really ranked 217 albums, but I'm going to trim things down here, so I can squeeze a capsule in about each one. This page serves as the central hub, where you can click through to any part of the series, which will be broken down into '10's. It's a process, guys. A process.

This is just one humble douchebag's viewpoint. Maybe we can get Andrew and Ryan to share their own, in their own unique way. I know Andrew digs that underground glockenspiel scene more than I do, and Ryan, well, his list will probably be 95% Dub and 5% Screamo.

Stay tuned for updates, and stick around for the best album of the decade. It's sure to floor you (did the Spice Girls have an album out this decade?).

Links to the Lists

Ron's Albums of the Decade - #100-91
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #90-81
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #80-71
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #70-61
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #60-51
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #50-41
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #40-31
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #30-21
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #20-11
Ron's Albums of the Decade - #10-1

Andrew's Top-20 Albums of the Decade

Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #10-1

2009-12-29T15:18:00.002-05:00

#10

At Dawn
My Morning Jacket
2001

Stan from American Dad was wrong. Jim James isn't singing these songs to him, he is singing them to me. If goosebumps could kill, I'd be dead every time At Dawn's first lyric, At dawn we ride, again hit my ears. Just a soulcrushing entrance to an album. About a minute of droning buildup, into such a delicate start to a pretty serious song. It's a calling to follow your dreams (in his case, to fucking rock your face off with his music). This marks the last album before they picked up Animal from the Muppet Band. For that, it's slightly less epic than what was to come, but MMJ measure epicness on a totally different scale.

This album is as epic as a rainy day album could ever be. Listen to the opening guitar lines of Hopefully. Perfection. The grain silo vocal treatment might not be better than it is here, on this track. Again, goosebumps on the chorus, here. They really pick things up with Honest Man, an epic 7 minute honky tonk ramble. In pure MMJ style, it's the slow drag that makes it so great, then it explodes through the guitar solo, and you're wondering what happened to that slow tempo. They just fill space. Then, the back to back Phone Went West and Strangulation, on the tail end of the album, both bring some heavy riffage back into the fold. Strangulation is perhaps the most interesting song on the album, with it's chugging slow metal riff that melts away into a quiet strum, and then you're hit with some derivative of Big Star when it all comes back together, complete with tinkling piano, and slide guitar. Then the build back into that slow metal riff. Damn, that's what music is supposed to sound like.

#9

Hazards of Love
The Decemberists
2009

Where to start...a pretentiously written, Shakespearean tragedy about a girl who falls in love with a shapeshifting fawn in the forest. She gets knocked up, he begs the forest witch to release him to be with his girl...and the forest witch agrees...only to then gets jealous, and send her most evil man to kidnap the girl, rape her, and defile her, while the forlorn shapeshifter tries to cross a raging river. Enter a dead children's choir to foil the plan, but in the end the two lovers still drown in the river, in a dying embrace. Ah, the hazards of love, amiright? Maybe it's the nerdy, sci-fi fantasy kid that still lives deep inside me. Maybe it's a secret love for prog metal, but only if it's mega ironic. Maybe it's just that I'm (again) a concept album whore. But I love it.

Story aside, this thing sounds great. It's hard to tear the songs out of the narrative, since everything basically blends in together. I've heard criticisms that the metal riffs are too cheesy, coming from these guys, and everything is just too ironic. I question this, though. The first half of the album, as the two fall in love, and all that, is basically a fragile love story. The songs are almost twee, especially when the woman, Margaret, is singing. It's when the riffage kicks in that you catch the foreshadowing of doom. The final three or four songs basically just rework the musical themes heard before them, but with a more frantic pace. It's not irony when the riffs kick in for The Abduction of Margaret/The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing. The album is serious as a heart attack, now. The vile Rake, and his children murdering ways, represents about as evil of a character as you'll see. His conscious gets him in the end, in the form of his dead children coming back to haunt him, is perfect usage of a classic tragedy archetype. The characters are all fleshed out, just from their soliloquy-like lines. It's really an amazing piece of drama.

The critics thought it was overwrought, cliche, and out of sync with the Decemberists previous style. I argue that they've been driving towards this album with every release, and that this is the culmination of their talent as a band. That culmination just happens to evoke Iron Maiden on occasion. Best album of 2009.

#8

The Creek Drank the Cradle
Iron & Wine
2002

A life changing album, when I first heard it back late 2002/early 2003. Basically paved the way for who knows how many similar sounding artists over the last 7 years, and redefined Sub Pop as a label. All that just from a bunch of 4 track bedroom recordings? Indeed. You've got amazing imagery in the lyrics, as I've said before, Beam is at the top of the songwriting craft. It was the instrumentation that caught me, though. Soaring choruses, layered vocals, revolving chords, with great banjo licks (I might have been wrong about Sufjan Stevens owning the best use of the banjo...Promising Light tops him). You can hear every chord change, fingers sliding on the frets. This isn't music that was made for mass consumption. This was intimate stuff, that you'd be afraid to share with your buddies, fearful that they'd tell you it wasn't any good. I'm glad Sam Beam let his stuff out to his friends, otherwise we'd never have gotten to hear this magical album.

We can also pretty much thank Sam Beam for bringing the hipster beard into style.

#7

Ghosts of the Great Highway
Sun Kil Moon
2003

Of all the Neil Young aping that happened this decade, Mark Kozalek did it the best. It's in the vocals, and it's in the swirling guitar riffs. It's unapologetic, but it does not need to be, because it transcends the comparisons, and creates it's own soul out of those building blocks created by Crazy Horse and Co back in the 70's. The pair of songs about boxers, Salvador Sanchez and Pancho Villa (essentially the same song, with drastically different arrangements) are barely eclipsed by the greatness of Duk Koo Kim, a 14 minute long masterpiece, and one of the best songs of any decade, much less this past one. There are no weak links here. The nostalgic Glenn Tipton and Carry Me Ohio are near classics, and the instrumental Si Paloma is a wonder to hear on headphones, so that you can pick out all the intricacies of the arrangement. I joined the bandwagon too late, and have had to go dig into most of Kozalek's material in a backwards way. Still, I think this album represents his finest work, and is an album that should weather the years, and remain a favorite of mine.

#6

For Emma, Forever Ago
Bon Iver
2008

Just a dude, heartbroken, sick (recovering from mono?), and secluded from society for four months in a cabin in the woods. The setting for a classic album? I'd say so. It's short, but it's unbelievably complete, as a mini-concept album detailing heartbreak and loneliness. I'm a big fan of the drum, but it's sparse usage on this album (just an occasional kick drum, it sounds like) is just the perfect accompaniment. It makes Skinny Love one of the best songs ever, as it amplifies that soulful lyric in the chorus just enough to make it epic. The soaring chorus on For Emma, paired with the horns, and the slide guitar, are amazing, especially as they slide into the cold closer, Re: Stacks. The album doesn't have a happy ending to it, at all. Heartbreak never goes away. It's another introspective, personal experience of an album that probably means a little something different to everyone who passes it through their record player, CD player, MP3 player, or however you choose else you might choose to amplify the magic.

#5

Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams
2000

Why is the pressure always on Ryan Adams to deliver a classic album every time he walks into the studio? Why doesn't he get any grading curve, at all, from the critics, who look for every reason to dislike what he does, out of the box? It's because he aimed so high and delivered, right off the bat. 'Heartbreaker' is stupendous. The rocking To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High), kicks things off with a rocking start...it's tempo belies the heavy tone of the rest of the album, which revolves mostly around lost love, bad relationships, and getting fucked up, themes obviously covered before, but freshened up by Adams.

The classic songs here abound. Come Pick Me Up, Why Do They Leave, and Oh My Sweet Carolina (ft Emmylou Harris on backing vocals) all resonate as much today as they did 10 years ago. This one just doesn't get old. Bartering Lines, with it's tribal beat and Gillian Welch backup vocal is a sneaky treasure. And Damn, Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains) deserves mention anytime this album is brought up in conversation. There is no weak link here. He wasn't trying to hard to sound like his heroes here, like he would end up doing on Gold. The drugs were just right, and he was churning through women quick enough to spawn song after song of heartache and loneliness. The perfect storm for a classic album. He'll probably never touch greatness like this again.

#4

Funeral
Arcade Fire
2004

This album is like a bomb blast going off in your speakers. I'm not sure what their sound is. It's got New Wave elements...sort of Glam, at times, but ramped up on so much cocaine, it'd be hard to keep up. Leave it to the Canadians to spew out something totally original. I almost exclusively listen to this one in the car, these days. It's a driving album, perfect for long trips. Which is odd, because it's an album about living in post-apocalyptic tunnels (and falling in love). Wake Up, which was nearly rendered overblown by being attached to Where the Wild Things Are's first trailers, might be the anthem of the decade. And no, I don't just like these guys because they put on concerts for Obama during the last election. This is the #1 band on my list to see live before I die.

#3

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilco
2002

This is our generation's 'Pet Sounds'. They inadvertently reinvented rock n roll here. And yes, I'm fully aware that if Warner Bros had just put the damn thing out, without jerking them around, it might not have reached the overall critical acclaim that it picked up after becoming an unreleased cult album (I'd still love it, I think...I was a Wilco whore, and had gobbled up the leaked tracks way before it saw a real pressing by Nonesuch). So how do you separate that from the album's legacy? I don't think you even need to.

Four deserted island songs here...I am Trying to Break Your Heart, Jesus Etc, Ashes of American Flags, and I'm the Man Who Loves You are indispensable songs when you look at this thing historically. Curiously (or not), three of those four have Bennett as co-writing credit. I'm convinced that Wilco's slide in the last few years is at least in part due to the fact that Bennett was jettisoned during this album's recording. He made 'Being There' and 'Summerteeth', more than he's ever been given credit for, and he was instrumental in the core recording of this album.

I think in hindsight, Jim O'Rourke coming in, and turning Tweedy all Kraut Rock is going to turn out to be their downfall as a 'band', even as much as introducing them to Glenn Kotche, who redid all the drums (and let's face it, it's the drums that make a lot of these cutting edge songs on this record), improved things. Again, all this bullshit means nothing, once you pop it in and listen to the songs. They still speak for themselves. It's a classic, and will be remembered as a watershed moment in rock history when all our kids are playing OOTP37, and doing their own 'Final 4' album tournament, years from now.

#2

()
Sigur Ros
2002

No album name, no names for the tracks, no liner notes...the damn thing isn't even spoken in a real language. What it is, though, is the biggest catharsis album I've ever heard. Essentially split in half, with the first half being far more upbeat than the sinister/explosive second half. The main 'lyric' throughout the entire album is You xylo. You xylo no fi lo. You so, which is stretched, altered, and rearranged many times, but essentially remains in it's phonetic form. Through pitch and tempo changes, though, that one invented lyric becomes like some kind of shamanistic mantra. If you ever get the chance to just envelope yourself in this one (set aside about 70 minutes...it's long), just put headphones on and listen all the way through, it's guaranteed to alter whatever your mood is. Maybe you'll be sadder. Maybe you'll be more ready to tackle the world. Maybe you'll be ready to listen to it again!

The meat and potatoes are in the final two tracks, where everything comes together into gigantic crescendos, false peaks, builds, and catastrophic drum rolls. This is an album that does not have a maximum volume setting; just crank it up just short of ear bleed, and hope that the neighbors like it, too.

#1

It Still Moves
My Morning Jacket
2003

I pretty much decided on this as the #1 album a couple of weeks ago, one afternoon while goofing off around the house. I've always kept it in extremely high regard, but it struck me that day as even better than just a great album. I think it's the best damned album of the decade. Mahgeetah, Run Thru, the Skynard homage One Big Holiday, and the epic I Will Sing You Songs...each one of these could run the table for song of the decade. My personal choice would be Run Thru, with it's 'start in the middle of the song' feel that jars you awake after I Will Sing You Songs lulls you into a peaceful feeling. The last triumphant time through the main riff of that song, tempo dropped just enough to be noticeable, but with heavier guitars, is the highlight of the album. There is no weak song on this album. It is perfect in every way.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #20-11

2009-12-29T10:00:00.003-05:00

#20

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Flaming Lips
2002

While it's not as good as their 1999 beauty 'The Soft Bulletin', this one carries special meaning, since they were touring this material when I met my wife at one of their shows. Do You Realize??, in all it's massively cliche'd glory, would not work with any, and I mean any, other band. Only the Lips can pull this one off. This one is full of electronic goodness, like the reverse beats of Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell or the playful Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt 1, with it's karate chop chorus, and blasting drumbeat. I don't know how they pull this thing off...it's part concept album, part birthday party, and part noise rock. Go figure.

#19

Kid A
Radiohead
2000

This is what the apocalypse will sound like. Find me a colder album, and by the time you bring it back from the record store, you'll be frozen to death. It's almost mechanically cold, with it's techno beats, and tangential lyrics. But it's a sprawling masterpiece of sound. Everything in Its Right Place and How to Disappear Completely are simply life altering. It functions almost exclusively as a complete album experience...I don't think I've ever sat down and thought of listening to just one or two tracks. You put it on, and you wait until the end before doing anything else. Pitchfork has this guy as the #1 album of the decade. They make a good case, and I'll even go so far as to copy some words here, that I think sum this one up very well:

when I slide Kid A into the CD player (how's that for a retro image?), something else happens. Once that drawer closes and the first chords of "Everything in Its Right Place" start-- those haunting, clicking keyboard textures and Thom Yorke's warped voice-- all these other ideas feel secondary. Instead, I get lost in the dissonant horn blasts of "The National Anthem" and hypnotized between the play of the drones and the hissy beats in "Idioteque"; I feel the deep pang of yearning and sadness with the title track, and I rest during the gorgeous Brian Eno-like interlude of "Treefingers". I'm listening to a brilliant album by an especially creative rock band functioning at its peak. Such records have strong melodies, exciting chord changes, unexpected arrangements, and tricky rhythms that you want to hear over and over again.

I can't argue much with that assessment. For me, it's got such a cold outer shell, it takes a lot of gusto for me to even play this one. Once it's on, though, I'm blown away yet again. It's a monumental piece of work.

#18

Sophtware Slump
Grandaddy
2000

You know, Kid A and this one have a lot in common. Concept-y albums about the end of the world...We must have really have been scared of Y2k, I guess. Grandaddy's previous material was not nearly as epic, and I think they struggled to get it back, though they were always solid (Sumday is another great album). This one channels Pavement, at times, but the electronic elements were pretty groundbreaking for the era. He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot, clocking in at over 8 minutes long, is fantastic. They rework common themes throughout the album, in classic rock opera style, making this one seem more like you're hearing a story than listening to a rock n roll album. This was a critics darling when it came out, drawing comparisons to Flaming Lips and Radiohead (the two most influential bands in the world, back then). I think those comparisons were valid, but this one transcends that, especially as we get further away from what those bands represented at the time.

#17

White Ladder
David Gray
2000

I think David Gray is one of the Top-5 songwriters in the last 30 years. I'd put him up there against anyone. This album was his first taste of fame, but what he did in the late 90's led directly to this one. Throwing in that tinge of electronica put him all over MTV and the radio (Babylon and White Ladder were both moderate hits, and still play on Adult Contemp stations). He writes one hell of a love song, from sad to whimsical, but I think the best track on this album is We're Not Right, a song about struggling with a dangerous drinking habit. There's nothing lewd, like Lead You Upstairs, but the PG version of David Gray is worth listening to over and over. Nightblindness, Sail Away, Please Forgive Me...these are just amazing songs.

#16

Shallow Grave
The Tallest Man on Earth
2008

Hat tip to my buddy Ryan for cluing me in on this one, and then for leaving the vinyl over for the last couple of months (the grooves are wearing out, I bet). Stripped down, lo-fi folk music...wonderful guitar lines, though. Great fingerpicking. It's cool how something so simple as this collection of songs can be so powerful of a musical statement. I have no idea who the guy is, other than he's some short fucker from Sweden who likes to sing songs outside while the sun sets over the water. They are short songs, too...little 3 minute long vignettes, perfectly crafted. Your mileage might vary on listening to this one, but I can't think of any reason not to call this a classic in the making.

#15

Devotion
Beach House
2008

Kind of a mix between Grace Slick, Portishead, and Grizzly Bear. I'm 100% behind Beach House these days...this album vaulted up the list after really growing on me over the past year or so. I picked it up initially off the strength of Gila, which was the single on the Satellite radio. The rest of it took some time to delve into. This is a headphones album...layers and layers of stuff in this sound. That would defy a first impression in a non-intimate setting, as on the surface this one can sound a bit...stripped down. The lo-fi edge is just a front, though. I'm on record for saying that 2010 is the year of Beach House. I'm super stoked for their next album, and hope that it can be close to as good as this one.

#14

Time (The Revelator)
Gillian Welch
2001

Best 'country' album of the decade, hands down. Welch is a hell of a songwriter, crafting in a timeless style that is so accessible, but never boring. The title track is an epic masterpiece, and I spin it every time I have an extra dollar on me at my local brewpub (I have no idea why this album is in that jukebox...). Welch and David Rawlings pair so well together on these songs, it's a shame they aren't more prolific. Some great fucking Americana right here.

#13

Change
Dismemberment Plan
2001

How good were D-Plan? Holy shit. Time Bomb? Classic fucking song. One of the all-time catharsis anthems. If you need to get your road rage anger out, this is the one to hammer your steering wheel to. These guys really gelled on 'Emergency & I' and 'Change', which sandwiched the end of the last decade. Sentimental Man and Face of the Earth are nearly as good. This album is one to move to, and is best played at volumes that the woman of your life will abhor. When they broke up, a tiny piece of me died. Now Travis Morrison is working as an IT for a newspaper, somewhere? The world is not right, sometimes. I still kick myself that I never got to see them live (despite owning a ticket to a show in Raleigh at the Cat's Cradle on their farewell tour).

#12

Veckatimest
Grizzly Bear
2009

Second best album of 2009...I recall declaring 2009 'The Year of Grizzly Bear' back in January, in anticipation of this album. 'Yellow House' was sooo good, and they had reportedly spent way more time than any sane band would need turning the knobs on this one...but out of the box, I had a hard time engaging this album. It's very...complicated. There's shit everywhere. It's probably the most 'prog' mainstream album in years. There are key changes, dynamic shifts in sound, and weirdly syncopated rhythms everywhere. The opener, Southern Point changes meter several times, as it shifts from the chorus, to the build, and back. Then it just ends. Two Weeks was the 'single', and is by far the most accessible song on the album. While You Wait for the Others became a surprise hit, but not the album version...former Doobie Brother Mike MacDonald stepped in and recorded vocals for the song, and they threw his version on the backside of a 7". He sums up Grizz pretty well (h/t to pitchfork for the quote):

"what the indie rock movement is doing right now is very inspiring" angle. He hears a musical bond between the Grizz's intricately filigreed chamber pop and his own past work: "When I was with the Doobies, the style of music was that we all went over the falls with chord progressions, trying to make things as complex and interconnected as possible. The punk movement swung towards being as primitive as possible, but now it's back to where these guys are good musicians. I never thought that would come back around, but it has."

Actually, I don't really give a fuck what Mike MacDonald thinks about Grizzly Bear, but the mere fact that he's even talking about them is extremely odd. I'm in a bizzaro world where my favorite band (MMJ) is trying to sound like a cross between Bread and Loggins/Messina, and the most groundbreaking band since Radiohead in the late 90's is getting props from the fucking Doobie Brothers. It's like a weird flashforward episode of Yacht Rock. Go figure.

The thing about Grizz is that I do not see a looming backlash. Remember how Radiohead never really had one (post-Pablo Honey doesn't count)? When they threw The Bends->Ok Computer->Kid A at us (holy shit, what a three album run), the critics stayed pretty much on board. You lost some of the poseurs, who were just following them because they were the hot buzz, but at no point did anyone start to claim they had jumped the shark. I think that's where Grizz lives right now. They pretty much have carte blanche to do whatever the fuck they want. Record the next album on the moon, with zombies singing backup vocals? I wouldn't be surprised, and I guarantee Pitchfork will be there to slap a 9.3 on it (in a snarky way). I kind of hope they go minimal, strip everything out, and just pipe samples from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, in reverse, through a church organ. That would blow Mike MacDonald's mind.

#11

Illinoise
Sufjan Stevens
2005

I have a soft spot for Sufjan Stevens, in all his butterfly winged glory. The fact that he can even be remotely popular while flogging his art-rock is a wonder. This is his opus, an ode to the State of Illinois, and all her rich histories and stories. What a weird idea, but it totally works. Listening to an entire Sufjan Steven album is like having the Encyclopedia read to you, poetically. Again, weird, but it totally works. Every note seems to be exactly where it should be. The horns in Jacksonville are really amazing, and the harmonized Chicago is wonderful. The best song on the album, though, is probably Casimir Pulaski Day, which isn't even about Illinois directly, but rather a series of autobiographical memories of something that happened on the obscure 'holiday'. Best use of banjo this decade. I'm, yet again, victim to being a concept album whore. I could listen to this one all day long.

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2009-12-28T14:33:00.003-05:00

#30

A Ghost Is Born
Wilco
2004

I think this will go down as Wilco's last great album. What has come since then has spiraled a little bit into the 'good but not great' category, and future material is heading straight for whatever platform they spin Michael Bolton on these days. This album followed up 'YHF', which was no small task. Somehow, it doesn't disappoint. Some of Tweedy's best songwriting is here...Theologians might be his finest hour. There is some guitar god worship on this one, with Spiders (Kidsmoke) shredding for over 10 minutes, and the opener on the disc, At Least That's What You Said both evoking some Crazy Horse riffage. I'd say this one also has the best last song that hardly anyone makes it to...The Late Greats, which to me sounds more like something late era Uncle Tupelo, or maybe 'Being There' era Wilco would do, closes the album. Getting to it, though, requires you to sit through 15 minutes of droning noise. I hope you've got the skip button handy for that one. This material got even better live, after they picked up Nels Cline, and started touring basically non-stop. I saw them 3 times supporting this album, I think. Great stuff.

#29

Source Tags & Codes
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
2002

This album might define the term 'angular guitars'. It just surges, explodes, and demolishes, but somehow keeps a melodic heart. This is my #1 car album, of all time. Listening to this album on a long trip will ensure you will get there ahead of schedule. You can't not go fast while listening to this one. I'll admit to not knowing a single song name (or really understanding hardly any lyrics)...I still have the old Kazaa burn of these tracks, and that's how I've listened to this one for the last 7 years. Their other material is good, but nothing, for me, can match the intensity of this album. Had Indie Rock followed these guys, rather than bands like Deathcab and The Shins, things would look a lot different. Hell, my hair might be pink.

#28

Yellow House
Grizzly Bear
2006

This one is like a dream. They get the whole 'reworking Brian Wilson' bullshit, thanks to their great production work, and non-traditional arrangements, but to me, they are Gabriel era Genesis smashed together with Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. It's not just derivative, though...they are breaking new ground, and have become perhaps the most influential sound around (fuck Animal Collective). Their style is almost orchestral, with complex arrangements framed around plodding drums. That defines a song like Lullabye, and carries through strongly throughout. These songs need space. For instance, Colorado builds and builds, and would make my list of deserted island songs from the decade. Just a great track. This one is a complete album experience, and I think foreshadows real greatness yet to come (including one more album on this list!).

#27

Cease to Begin
Band of Horses
2007

I think Band of Horses really evolved from their debut to this album. The comparisons to MMJ's early material are necessary, but this has an altogether different feel from that stuff. This album has the best song ever named after a 7 foot tall retired German NBA player (Detlef Schrempf). I can not figure out what it has to do with Schrempf, as the lyrical content is about as non-basketball as you can get, but it's an amazing song. Islands on the Coast jangles enough to move you in your seat, and Is There a Ghost has some tempo to it, at times...but this is kind of a soft, introspective album. Not sad, per se, but definitely something of a cerebral experience. It still sounds great loud, though. Where do these guys go next?

#26, #25, #24

Cold Roses
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
2005

Jacksonville City Nights
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
2005

29
Ryan Adams
2005

For the sake of a narrative, and because these albums are often discussed together, I've grouped this trio of Ryan Adams releases together. The ordering is that of release date, rather than which one I like the most...because that has a tendency to change daily. What we have is the most prolific material dump I think an artist can manage, and still be considered great output. All three were released in 2005, but each album has it's own story, it's own soul, and it's own sound.

Cold Roses dropped first, and was the first album cut with The Cardinals, Adams first cohesive backing band since he left Whiskeytown. It's a sprawling, epic, 2 CD affair. It touches a lot of genres, but most people who talk about this one refer to the hat tip to the Grateful Dead. The gesture earned Adams some appearances with Phil Lesh on the road, including a killer Red Rocks appearance in 2005. The high points on this album are insane. Magnolia Mountain and Easy Plateau are my faves, but the title track owns a legendary guitar riff, and tracks like Beautiful Sorta and Sweet Illusions rival everything he's done post-Heartbreaker. It's dense material, though...18 songs, sprawled over two discs. I've argued that Adams didn't have a self-editing problem in 2005, overall, but that Cold Roses could have been 6 songs shorter, and would have been just as good, if not better. I stand by that, but damned if I could whittle six songs off the tracklist.

Jacksonville City Nights came second, in the Fall. Again, the Cardinals receive album cover credit, and this is probably their most cohesive effort (and what the Cardinals would probably have sounded like, solo, if Neil Cassal didn't sing like a whiny bitch). This is a bar room country album, through and through. A Kiss Before I Go is straight up 70's honky tonk. Dear John, a quiet piano duet with Norah Jones, is a real highlight. They even dug out the old Whiskeytown song My Heart is Broken for a reprise here, and it fits like a glove. On most days, this is my favorite of the trio of 2005 releases. Peaceful Valley pushes it over the top for me, and stands as one of my all time favorite tracks. To see how he's pushed that song live is an amazing experience. Really, a good portion of this material was played heavily on their recent tour, which is supposed to be the last ever with the Cardinals as Adams' band.

The third album hit almost as the year ended, and was pretty heavily panned by critics. Nearly every review focused more on how it just wasn't possible for someone to drop three albums in one year, rather than on the actual music. The idea was an ode to his 20's, with each song representative of an individual year of his life. Adams teamed up with Ethan Johns, who produced the final Whiskeytown album and Heartbreaker, and worked on a lot of the pre-Cardinals stuff. It's an emotional album, full of narrative-type songwriting and storytelling. Of the three, this one was the hardest to get into, but has yielded great rewards over the years. Carolina Rain, The Sadness, and Starlite Diner are all excellent, excellent singer-songwriter type songs. It's more subdued than the other two albums, but I think in terms of the attempts by Adams to put out an album of such personal material, this is his most successful venture (Love is Hell being a previous example).

#23

Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
2008

As pretentious as this album is (the damn thing comes with a sweater vest and a trust fund), it's stunningly fun to listen to. Maybe it's the African rhythms, or maybe these guys were just 'right place/right time', and the music listening populace just needed something to ride around with the top down to. Tight, concise pop songs about being a rich douchebag in college. I'm not sure if liking Vampire Weekend will get you laid, at least not now that they aren't the hippest thing in the world anymore, but nearly two years after hearing this shit for the first time, I'm still not even remotely tired of it.

#22

Mouthfuls
Fruit Bats
2003

Undoubtedly one of the most underrated albums every produced. I'm serious. That clean, folk guitar sound, which Sub Pop specialized in back in first half of the decade, is showcased here. Rainbow Sign rivals anything Sam Beam has done, and The Little Acorn is better than anything The Shins have created. Why wasn't this more popular? I have no idea. The Fruit Bats sound has evolved into a more robust arrangement, especially with this last album. But nothing can quite match what they did here. I still kick myself for not jumping in the car and heading to Tennessee to see these guys open for Iron & Wine. One of my all-time concert blunders. This is another old, faded CD-R from the Kazaa days...

#21

Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
2008

They aren't as grandiose, or whimsical, but the band I most associate with Fleet Foxes are the Moody Blues (especially early era Moody Blues). It's dramatic, at times straight up prog, but incredibly accessible. Sub Pop is still the place to go for this sound, as they've been for the entire decade. Music in this vein is timeless, and I am positive that Fleet Foxes are a band that will not fade away into the ether over the years. It's unpretentious but really artsy and poetic. I guess that can be attributed to the fact that they all have rocking beards, and a closet full of flannel shirts. Ragged Wood is such a dominant piece of prog, it moves this entire sub-genre of indie rock in a whole new direction. The changeover in the middle of that track is just amazing. Tell me anything you want/any old lie will do/Call me back to/back to you is one hell of a lyric. Listening to this album makes me wish Spring was here, already. It's a mood altering collection of music.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #40-31

2009-12-18T11:27:00.003-05:00

#40

Chutes Too Narrow
The Shins
2003

Why am I souring on The Shins? Backlash? Not aging well? Halfway through the decade, this would have been a Top-10 album on my list. Even a couple of years ago, I think this cracks the Top-20. It's phenomenal, and marks their high point (so far) in their discography. It's full of poppy-goodness, as I like to call it. Maybe if it were Spring, rather than Winter, I'd be singing a different tune. This music isn't the kind of thing for a day where they are calling for snow (Bon Iver, where you at?). Kissing the Lipless is such a great tune, and So Says I...they are pretty damn close to the best pure pop songs of the entire decade. I'd argue these guys made Sub Pop more money than any other artist this decade...and it was a REAL good decade for that label.

#39

The Boxer
The National
2007

This one, for me, was a slow burn. I liked it when it came out, but not to the level that everyone was screaming about it. I think I really turned the corner on this one just a few months ago, when I spun it on the record player on a lazy night, and drank a cold one. I'm still left wondering; what is The National? They are one of those genre defying bands. Possessing one of the most unique voices in the industry helps. He's like a cross between an indie rock front man and a crooner from the 50/60s. It's a strange dynamic, but it works. Listen to Fake Empire, one of the best political tracks of the decade, and you'll see what I mean. Or my personal fave, Start a War, with it's poetic repetition and simple guitar line. I've commented that these guys have the potential to be the biggest band in the world. They seem to have the drive, the connections, and the talent.

#38

Everything All The Time
Band of Horses
2006

More Sub Pop...they litter the Top-40 on my list. Is this where the 'folk' thing really coalesced? Borrowing from the best of Iron & Wine and My Morning Jacket, and doing it before Fleet Foxes, and all the freak folkers that have come about in the last few years cut their teeth. I'm probably ignoring a huge swath of great bands who were more 'vital' or 'relevant', but Band of Horses crafted their own niche with this record, and are due a ton of credit for the shift in indie rock sound over the last three or four years. They have an ability to pull the most epic sound out, just by slowing things down a little bit more. There is tons of space, especially in their drumming (listen to the restraint in The Great Salt Lake, for instance). The First Song is totally a 70's homage, but somehow it's fresh and new. Like everything else that is good, it's filtered through a hefty dose of Neil Young. Few songs can match the soft/loud of The Funeral, though, which just fucking explodes through the chorus. Just plain epic.

#37

Hospice
Antlers
2009

Guy locks himself in his apartment and cuts an album about coping with the death of his loved one. It's got a back story that Pitchfork compared to Bon Iver, but aside from the isolation of the creative process, and the self-released buzz that they generated, they are vastly different. This album is lush...almost grandiose, at times. The production values are extremely high...there are moments where you're left speechless at the layered wall of sound blasting your eardrums. I'm left wondering how one person could basically pull this off. This album hurts. It literally hurts. The lyrics aren't to be listened to in great detail if you're inclined to melancholy, or if you rely on prescription drugs to stabilize you. You'd probably curse the world and pull the covers up for a month. But that's death, and like it or not, it's real.

#36

Our Endless Numbered Days
Iron & Wine
2004

Iron & Wine's first real 'studio' effort didn't really change the formula much from the first, and I think a lot of these songs were written during the same period as those that appeared on the debut. It's quiet, twirling, and folkish. Sam Beam crafts incredible imagery, thanks I think to his background in film. He understands how to frame a story. He understands how to use metaphors to simplify a theme. Hauntingly beautiful lyrics like the chorus in Naked As We Came just can't be beat: One of us will die inside these arms/Eyes wide open, naked as we came/One will spread our ashes round the yard

There's something visceral about Beam's poetry. His songs bring emotion. They remind you of things that you forgot about a long time ago. He is perhaps the most effective songwriter of our generation, and I say that with as little hyperbole as I can muster. His songs almost always elicit an emotion. In his early material, like this album, the simple song structures, and the tinkling chord progressions...they lend more to the intimacy. It's bigger than coffee shop folk, though. It's not Starbucks or M&M's or whatever else they are able to flog on the backs of this sound. It's songs like Sodom, South Georgia, which I've shed more tears to than maybe anything else in my life, and which this week has been highly relevant (almost to the point where I might have to retire it for a while).

Papa died smiling
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wish in a well
And Sodom, South Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas
Bows and a blanket of weeds

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

Papa died while my
Girl Lady Edith was born
Both heads fell like
Eyes on a crack in the door
And Sodom, South Georgia
Slept on an acre of bones
Slept through Christmas
Slept like a bucket of snow

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

It's just a circle of life song...almost cliche, in the vein of something Elton John does for Disney movies. Those metaphors, though, are untouchable. To hear that one live these days is a whole new experience than the hushed version on the album. He's transformed it into an almost triumphant extravaganza, framing it around the celebration of life, rather than the sadness of the passing. To say that's not relevant to my shit this week is an understatement. And that's one of the reasons we use music to heal, and the best case for a sad song that I can possibly make. It's how we cope, how we move on.

#35

Sky Blue Sky
Wilco
2007

I call this one 'Ghost is Born Pt 2'...partially because I like to get on the nerves of my buds, but also a little bit because it feels like an extension of that great album...but it just didn't grow enough to soar past it. I'll admit, this one has really grown on me, to the point where I'm almost ready to consider it a classic. It would be indispensable in their catalog. The newest album is not enjoying this slow burn effect, which makes me wonder if perhaps they were inching down the 'Adult Contemporary' road in here (listen to the beginning of You Are My Face, before the Nels Cline freakout happens). Wilco is aging like those kids that came on Geraldo back in the day, that had the disease where they looked 95, but were really 12. Hell, Nels Cline can nearly draw Social Security (and so can Tweedy's wife). Tweedy looks like death in a lot of pictures I've seen him recently. In this incarnation of Wilco, they are best when they let Cline freak the fuck out, and he does so plenty on this record. He's a virtuoso, on par with those assholes in Chickenfoot, or whatever other Steve Vai bullshit you want to shove down my throat. I would think that Cline could destroy EVH in an MC Hammer/Michael Jackson style play-off. With Wilco, you're either with me or against me. I say get on board, and enjoy the ride.

#34

Easy Tiger
Ryan Adams
2007

Chuck Klosterman's 'Highly Advanced' theory really applies to this album. When it came out, critics jumped at the chance to pan it. It wasn't whatever they were looking for, which at this point for Adams, could very well be anything. With expectations so wide, everyone missed the fact that Adams had really nailed this one. It was SO easy to point towards Halloweenhead, a proto-Highly Suspicious if there ever was one, and say 'WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT'. That would mean you missed out on the beautiful mountain song Pearls on a String or Tears of Gold, which was very much in tune with all the material that he purged in 2005, or These Girls, which has seen many different versions over the years, but few better than this simple version. Then there are the two masterpieces on this one. Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. and I Taught Myself How to Grow Old are, quite simply, ungodly works of music. It's an album that kept getting better with each listen. Hell, I don't even skip Halloweenhead, anymore.

#33

Furnace Room Lullaby
Neko Case
2000

I like my Neko best served a little country, and her stuff back when her backing band was the 'Boyfriends' is my favorite (though there really isn't a bad Neko Case record). Her voice kicks in on that opening track, and bam, I'm entranced. Thrice All-American (Tacoma) is such an important look into the small town America, especially in today's terms, where it seems that sprawl and loss of manufacturing jobs are killing what was best about being rural. Her phrasing of the lyric 'dusty old jewel in the South Puget Sound', and the dig on Wal Mart at the end really sell that one as a classic song. It does get pretty fucking country at times. Whip the Blankets would get you going at the ho-down, for sure. It's a perfect balance, though, of country jangle and slow ballads. Hard to believe this one is 10 years old!

#32

I And Love And You
Avett Brothers
2009

What happens when you take some good ol' boys from Eastern NC, known for mixing mountain folk with a younger aesthetic, and throw them in Southern California with Rick Rubin behind the knobs? Fucking magic, that's what. This one hasn't been out too long, but it's made a huge impression on me. It's so earnest and unpretentious. I don't quite know what to make of it. If you're ignorant to the background, you wouldn't peg this for a folk-y type album, and they really don't throw down any mountain sound, except for one outro. My wife, when asked, likened these guys more to Ben Folds. There's a lot of piano, a lot of layered harmonies on the vocals, and a lot of earnest pop. I don't know if I've heard a song as unpretentious as January Wedding since the Mamas and the Papas or something like that. But everything isn't all lovey dovey. The title track, for instance, has a heavy final refrain:

Dumbed down and numbed by time and age
Your dreams to catch the world, the cage
The highway sets the travelers stage
All exits look the same

Three words that became hard to say
I and love and you
I and love and you
I and love and you

Sky's the limit for these guys.

#31

Live
Built to Spill
2000

I have no idea how they did it, but they took Neil Young's Cortez the Killer and made it BETTER. How is that possible? I mean, this is Neil Young, for god's sake. He owns that song. It's in his wheelhouse. How could this happen? I have no idea...in a world where live covers are cliche, Built to Spill somehow took one of the best live songs of All Time, and improved on it. It's a 20 minute long mindfuck. It catapults this album, which is full of great, great material (including another epic jam to close things out) far above the rest of their catalog. This cover is so full of win, if you haven't downloaded it and started the mp3 yet, cranking those shitty PC speakers up to as far as they will go, then you are a pinko-commie, and I don't want anything to do with you.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #50-41

2009-12-10T08:08:00.003-05:00

#50

Ágætis Byrjun
Sigur Rós
2001

Technically released in 1999, I don't think it got a proper large scale release, outside of Iceland's best record stores, until 2001 or so. Some might recognize Svefn-G-Englar, not by name (which I can't even begin to pronounce), but more from it's existence as the central theme of the final scene of Vanilla Sky. These guys do epic, haunting tunes. They can be as loud and penetrating as anything else out there. They can also be incredibly fragile, and because you can't understand a single lyric, it's easy to project the sheer emotion that they are capturing in their songs, and make it your own. Basically, they are a catharsis band. Olsen Olsen is one of their best tunes, as well as Flugufrelsarinn. This album reads like an Ikea catalog, but forget the song titles (and they eventually did)...it's the sound that counts.

#49

Album
Girls
2009

Where the hell did this one come from? One of the guys in the band had a terrible childhood (parents were Children of God cultists), has no education, and is a huge drug addict...he obviously has some talent of some sort, to bounce around like he did and find opportunities...and then "BAM", he's got a record deal, serious undergound buzz, and is probably going to see his album hit just about every pretentious 'Best of 2009' album lists. And the damn thing is great, to boot! It's exceptionally immature...basically a big 'do you like me, check yes or no' album...not quite emo, because their too fucked up on pills to cry. They are pushing the edge with their videos, where you'll find some rather shocking gay footage of a guy singing into another guys junk like a microphone. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Vampire Weekend from the streets. We'll be lucky if this band stays together long enough to put out a terrible letdown of a second album...we'll also be lucky if the backlash hits these guys before one of them is dead. Have I mentioned that Hellhole Ratrace is the best song of 2009?

#48

Tallahassee
Mountain Goats
2002

The final Mountain Goats album to make my list of 217...why is this one the best? I think, of his non-basement recording type records, this one shines through the most. The songwriting is always excellent with Darnielle, but being his first time in a 'real' studio, trying to cut a 'real' sounding record, did great things for the music. I also love it because it's a loose narrative...a concept album, if you will, about a couple who's marriage is awful, and they are hellbent on drinking themselves into oblivion. Good stuff! Pitchfork, who gave this one a 6.7 back in 2002 (and included a bunch of snark about how passe the concept album concept was in 2002, etc), went back and made it one of their Top-200 albums of the decade. Funny how things change, once you actually sit and listen to something...If you hate the pre-major label Mountain Goats because of the tape fuzz, this would be a good place to start. I still think this is a step below the masterful "Zopilote Machine", which is somehow almost 15 years old now, but marks the most incredible point in a great decade for Darnielle and his Mountain Goats project.

#47

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Neko Case
2006

What's surprising to me on this album is, how short the songs are. I've listened to this one many times in my car, and I've never walked away feeling unsatisfied, but looking at the tracks, 7 songs are 2:46 or less. That's concise songwriting, and evidence of great self editing, I think. Maybe that's the lure of this album, that just delivers on it's promise of the awesome voice, tight choruses, and perfect melodies. Maybe Sparrow probably ranks as my favorite song on the album, and is a perfect example of the conciseness. How she builds so much tension into the song, despite really only going through two verses, is amazing. When that one explodes, it's unlike anything else you'll hear in the current alt-country sound. Take something old, make it new, make it better. Neko does it really well. John Saw That Number reminds me of the curiosity of my musical tastes, and how I tend to really enjoy songs with strong religious imagery, yet I'm not even remotely religious.

#46

Stay Positive
Hold Steady
2008

Hootie 2.0 does it again! This is a great album, full of arena rock juiciness, soaring guitars, . Sequestered in Memphis is probably the most fun song they have in their catalog. Lord, I'm Discouraged is an amazingly depressing look at abusive relationships, from the perspective of a friend who just wants the girl to be ok. I think Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine is the best lyric/chorus I've heard in I don't know when. I think it takes a bar band like these guys to really hone in on what Rock n Roll is supposed to be, and they nail it on this album. Crunching, loud, shambling songs. A rocking good time, and probably the best drinking album of the decade.

#45

Sebastopol
Jay Farrar
2001

Jay Farrar was half of the business end of Uncle Tupelo, which split into Wilco and Son Volt. This should go without saying, but while Tupelo and Wilco are still regarded with awe, Farrar's projects have fallen out of the mainstream conscious. Fact of the matter is, this guy is IMPORTANT, and this album is exactly why. Son Volt essentially broke up in 1998, and this didn't come until 4 years later. Farrar tried it on his own moniker, but things never meshed, despite awesome material. It wasn't until he took the Son Volt name back that he started to even get real press again. So I think one of the biggest 'What If's of the decade is, what if Farrar had used the Son Volt name for this album, which features songs that he still plays live (like Voodoo Candle and Damn Shame, two amazing rockers)? I think the success would have dwarfed what he ended up having over the last 10 years.

Admittedly, this one is a diversion from the Son Volt sound that we'd been accustomed to, but having recently listened to Uncle Tupelo's seminal 'March 16-20, 1992' album, I think the soul of where his music was going (and where it was) can be found. It was here that he re-embraced that Woody Guthrie-loving quality...he took his roots back. I question anyone who can listen to the shambling Feel Free, which opens this album, and not like it. I just don't think it's possible. As a final aside, this album does not have a Wikipedia page, which I find absolutely shocking.

#44

Mignonette
Avett Brothers
2004

This one has been progressively bumped up this list, as I've been making it. I've gone through a big reassessment period on these guys, and they are skyrocketing in my own personal musical taste world right now. This one really caught my ear during a recent trip up to my wife's family's mountain condo. One of her cousins had left a blank faced CD-R lying out, and I tossed it in to laugh at them for listening to Lady Ga-Ga. Instead, we jammed to this one two times through, enough to make my wife want to listen to something other than the Avett Brothers (otherwise, we'd have gone for the triple). It's really easy to point to Swept Away as the best song on the album (there are two versions, and I prefer the second one), but the consistency of the tunes here is remarkable. I think these guys have taken steps forward in their most recent material, and those who are averse to the 'mountain sound' might be turned off by these guys, but my bet is you've never heard Appalachian music sound quite like this.

#43

Z
My Morning Jacket
2005

This one hits you like a ton of bricks, right off the start. That heavy baseline, then the sort of ska-ish guitar lick precipitate one of the best 'oooooh ahhhhh' choruses you'll ever hear. It's like a drunken walk through the park. There are some really, really killer songs here. I'd probably have put this album #1 on my list in 2005, which was an excellent music year. It remains a constant on my Ipod, and like their entire catalog, will probably never be deleted. Gideon, which is epic, even at sub-4 minutes long, and Dondante, which rivals Run Thru as their most exciting song ever, are the true highlights here. See these guys live, and forgive them for Highly Suspicious.

#42

Veneer
Jose Gonzalez
2005

It's quiet and folky, which you'd figure out in about 10 seconds. This was a pretty amazing debut album, I believe recommended by my friend out in San Fran, Pete Johnson. Pete keeps his ear to the rail pretty well, and this one became a pretty instant fave of mine. Heartbeats and Crosses are perhaps the best representatives from this group of songs, and they come back to back in the middle of the album. The Spanish style, nylon string guitar sounds fresh, in the Indie Rock spectrum, and there's no denying Gonzalez's chops. It's amazing that he could pull this album off, with essentially no additional backing instrumentation, or hardly anything other than his guitar and his voice. Stunning album that we need to prevent from being forgotten about over the next decade.

#41

Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State
Sufjan Stevens
2003

Stevens kicks off his '50 State Project' (which he will never, ever even remotely come close to finishing) with his home State of Michigan. He played all the instruments on this one, which is even more amazing if you hear how dense and orchestral it is. Each song carries either a historical lesson about Michigan, or some personal story that relates back to the State for Stevens (and sometimes both). The lyrics are often very topical to Michigan's decline (which really is more obvious today), and are socially important. Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!) takes to task the poor decisions made, but basks in the past glories of the city. It builds around the weirdest chorus you'll ever find:

Henry Ford, Henry Ford.
Public trans, public trans.
Pontiac, Pontiac.
Feed the poor, feed the poor.
City hall, city hall.
Windsor Park, Windsor Park.
Saginaw, Saginaw.
After dark, after dark.
Tigers game, Tigers game.
'84, '84.
Industry, industry.
Unemployed, unemployed.
Gun control, gun control.
Wolverine, wolverine.
Iroquois, Iroquois.
Industry, industry.
Public trans, public trans.
Auto cars, auto cars.
Jefferson, Jefferson.
Michigan, Michigan.

Somehow it works. Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid) and Say Yes! to M!ch!gan! are also standouts. It's an album that is at times seems all over the place, despite it's common theme. It's vastly interesting, and somehow very informative...and it still sounds good? Stevens is dynamic, weird, quirky, and maybe pretentious...but he can craft the most unique music out there.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #60-51

2009-12-02T15:23:00.002-05:00

#60

Alligator
The National
2005

Why are these guys not the biggest Rock Band in the world? I really can't say. Chicks LOVE these guys. I'd compare their broad appeal to that of The Killers, but for some reason, they've remained on the peripheral. Maybe their songs are a little too sad, a little too mature, and a little too awesome for mainstream success. Anyway, this little beauty largely slipped past my subconscious, until 'Boxer' became such a huge critical success. Friends say this is their 'finest work'. I won't argue that point, except to say that I'm still a bit of a neophyte on this material. It's got a couple dozen plays on the Ipod. I can agree that it's phenomenal. Would I pick it over 'Boxer'? Maybe 3 out of 10 times. And that's why their latest album will be higher. If the Dessner brothers decide to put out a disco album, I bet they would become insanely famous.

#59

Horn of Plenty
Grizzly Bear
2004

What a precious, depressing, deep thought of an album. The AMG review is pretty much spot on:

This is the kind of album you'll want to listen to late at night, perhaps a few sheets to the wind, with lights off and headphones on to allow these creepy, quiet little tunes to worm their way into your subconscious.

This whole thing comes off as a personal 'project', rather than something meant for mass consumption. Grizzly Bear has transformed from this haunting debut into the driving force in 'Indie Rock', mostly because they took the building blocks here, and made it more accessible. This might sound odd to a noob who throws their recent album on, and wonders what the fuck happened, but it's true. But it's not pretentious, no matter how big the hype around them has gotten, or eventually grows to (before the backlash hits). They are sort of like a stripped down early era Pink Floyd, in a way. Mix in some early Genesis prog-like tendencies, and push the technology into the digital age, and this is what you get. And it's fantastic.

#58

Sojourner
Magnolia Electric Co.
2007

Dissecting Jason Molina's catalog was one of the tougher things to do when rating this past decade. You could argue that everything he has released is exceptional, and the debate rages on whether this or that is better/worse than what came before. The newest album from Magnolia Electric Co, for instance, could probably make this list, but does not. His collaboration with Will Johnson, which just came out last month, could also be argued for, but is a bit to fresh. And similarly, this 'collection' of songs, released in 2007, could spark controversy, in that it is about as unconventional of an album as you'll ever see.

Released as a gift to fans, only 5k of these were made. It came in a wooden winebox like package, with posters, a DVD, and other swag. I confess to not owning this, but the files are easy to come by on the interweb, if you were inclined to go looking for such a thing. There is overlap with 'Fading Trails', which came earlier in this countdown, though the versions here are different. In total, the 33 tracks encompass four different 'sessions', and the varying accompaniment in each session almost makes this four individual albums (this would be far more obvious to me, if I had the actual discs, rather than digital files that all go in one folder). The music is what you'd expect. The rocking tunes have a Neil Young bent, the country tunes have a sadness that popular country doesn't touch on anymore, and the stripped down songs carry the agony of depression and loneliness, that only Molina can deliver.

Such a collection probably deserves individual mention, breaking down each part. If you care to find that online, you can. That AMG review does a great job of that. For brevity's sake, I'll just say that this album appeals to my epic-loving, completist tastes, and that plays a lot into my loving it more than anything else in the catalog. I enjoy tackling something that on the surface is unwieldy and disjointed.

#57

Ancient Melodies of the Future
Built to Spill
2001

In another dimension, all the accolades heaped on Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie were instead heaped onto Idlewild and Built to Spill. I think lyrically, Built to Spill is a little bit campy, at times, and maybe that's limited them. But the guitars, man, the guitars. Go listen to Trimmed and Burning and try to tell me you didn't tap your foot a reach for more volume. Just a perfect set of Indie Rock. If the 'genre' of Indie Rock confuses you, and you don't know what the hell is going on, these guys can recalibrate you. Funny how when you do that, what you're left with is just a new take on 70's arena rock. Everything seems to revolve around Neil Young, somehow.

#56

Hearts of Oak
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
2003

What a tour de force of an album. If I'd have made this list in 2005, it'd have been top-10, at the very least. For some reason, I've largely forgotten about it. It's still in the CD book in my car, though, and goes in ever once in a while. We'll give it a couple of demerits for falling off my radar. What the hell happened to Ted Leo? After this album, he was supposed to take his spot at the top of the world. At the time I first heard this one, I was listening to a lot more punk/ska, especially Second and Third Wave ska. Ted Leo seemed to be the indie rock extension of that sound. I never got to see him live, which I think is where the real action was. I've seen video...holy shit, tons of energy. Between Ted Leo and D-Plan, the DC Scene stayed on the radar early in the decade.

#55

Superwolf
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney
2005

I'm looking over the list, and this might be the 'best collaboration' of the decade between guys who don't normally play together. Sure, Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan) toured with BpB a few times, but this studio effort showcases their talent unlike anything that they've done apart. It's just a perfect to hear Oldham's lyrics with the backdrop of Sweeney's guitar licks. The tracks are largely still in the Oldham style that you see on all his other material, including the 7 albums he put out in the decade that made my Top-217...best songwriter of the decade? Quite possibly.

#54

Chutes Too Narrow
The Shins
2003

As good as their debut? Not in my opinion. That means they've progressively gotten 'worse', by my measure, over their three albums. We're due for a new Shins album, but what I heard from Andrew recently was that Mercer has gone Mariah Carey, and kicked dudes out of the band, including the guitar player who looks sorta Indian. That bodes poorly. Drama aside, they delivered some great pure pop...sort of a reworking of The Beach Boys, with our generation's snarky irony. Kissing the Lipless and Fighting in a Sack are personal faves. It's a perfect 30 minute album...great in the car, or if you're straightening up the house, and need to rock out to something that won't distract you too much. Am I as big a fan as I used to be? No. Did they put on perhaps the best concert I've seen this decade? Yes. Will I be searching for a leak of their new album, when it hits? Hell yes. Sometimes GREAT becomes simply GOOD, but GOOD is still awesome, sometimes.

#53

Furr
Blitzen Trapper
2008

I think 'Wild Mountain Nation' had higher highs than 'Furr', but I think 'Furr' is the better overall album. In fact, I rarely ever listened to WMN all the way through, at least until recently, when the vinyl was left over at my house. What surprises me on this one is the short song times...you'd think that a band that has such a reputation as an 'experimental' outfit would have stretched their legs a little bit. That's indicative self-editing, I think, which could be why I like this one a little bit more. Give me what you do well, in short bursts. If I want to watch you freak the folk out, I'll catch you live (if you upper midwest bastards even know where SC is). This stuff is very accessible. I think the wife even dug the title track off of this one, that was on Sirius every couple of hours, last fall. An untold story (at least I haven't heard it told) is how Sub Pop turned from their Nirvana roots to become the center of the folk revival this decade. These guys are a perfect fit in that dynamic. I'm excited for their next album...I think these guys are just getting started.

#52

Transatlanticism
Death Cab for Cutie
2003

Death Cab is a solid band, and this was their finest hour. Gibbard was really hot, at this point...Postal Service was right around the same time. They've launched themselves into the stratosphere, in indie rock terms, and might be the most common name in mainstream indie rock. Gibbard's material has never been better. The New Year is a great opener on the album, and one of their finer songs. The epic Transatlanticism, locking in at over 7 minutes, is the highlight of the album, though, and sits right in the middle of this record, as an anchor. Other than the newest album, which I'm up/down on, depending my mood, this is the Death Cab album I turn to in their catalog.

#51

St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley
2006

Stop the presses! It's an African-American artist! Aside from maybe a backing band member or two, this is the only black artist on my entire list, if my glance through is to be trusted. I've been asking myself, why is that? What has happened to my musical tastes that have turned them so 'white'? I don't have a firm answer. I know in the 90's, especially the early 90's, when Gangsta Rap was still fresh, my CD collection had much more diversity. My tastes have generally ruralized, however, while most African-American music seems to have gone even further urban. I dipped into old country, alt-country, and bluegrass. I moved away from just about all rap. I listen to about 1 hour of 'regular' radio every year. That's it. My ability to choose my niche has streamlined my tastes to exactly what I want, and I never have to deviate from it. Is that good? Because I think the extension of that is that artists set out to cater to that niche, rather than looking for ways to express themselves and grow. What will the next generation of bands take as their influences? I mean, in the 80's, the influences were all roughly the same...now? You could see your favorite band namedrop some obscure noise-pop band that you've never heard of, and wonder, what the fuck is going on?

Back to the whiteness...does the lack of a black artist, other than this awesome Cee-lo project, say something broader about black music? I don't think so. I'm not a tastemaker. I don't speak for anyone other than myself. I try to persuade others to like what I like, and I mercilessly mock the stuff that I don't (Chickenfoot, anyone?), but I am not the trendsetter. I would readily admit that there is black music out there that is equal to, or better than what I have here (and music from other ethnic backgrounds, that I'm just not exposed to, as well). You'd be crazy to think otherwise. So why don't I like it?

1. Black artists that are well known tend to fall in the 'Mainstream', where I'm just not exposed to a lot of it.
2. The trend in 'Mainstream' music is moving away from the album, and towards the single. That's in opposition with how I enjoy music. I'm an album guy.

I think those two things stand in the way from me finding the 'good' stuff (read: stuff that I'd like). I've tried Kanye. Not into it. Rap has largely, in my view, lacked true innovation, and just doesn't sound fresh to me. I'd rather go back and listen to shit from 15 years ago, even if the pop culture references are getting dated. I can say the same thing for Mainstream white music, though. I think Timberlake is a solid performer, a funny guy, and probably less of a douchebag than many other 'indie' artists that I follow. He even has a few catchy songs that I like. But I'll be damned if I can sit through an entire Timberlake album. This problem goes into other genres, as well. Modern rock radio? Please, I can't even tell the bands apart, anymore. R&B? Seems watered down, compared to the greats over the last 50 years, like they've run out of metaphors for fucking. 'New' Country? Dear god, that's the vilest, overproduced, overmarketed shit in the whole business. Mainstream music is basically crap, and unfortunately that's where most of the black artists that I'd come in contact with reside.

Or, maybe I'm just racist. But this Gnarls Barkley shit is awesome.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #70-61

2009-12-01T13:09:00.005-05:00

#70

To Find Me Gone
Vetiver
2006

One of the brightest surprises...Had vaguely even heard of them before seeing them live, but was blown away. All I know of them is what is on my Ipod, and the newer album, which I've heard spun on the record player a few times. Based on # of plays, the material off this album is my favorite, though you could make a serious argument that the self titled album is better, and I'd believe you on certain days (it ranked #108, FYI). They could be one of the most underrated bands in music today. Are they the kind of band that could crack through, a la Grizzly Bear, into a bigger audience? I think so, but it's just as likely they spit out a handful of great albums that hardly nobody hears. Won't Be Me is one of the better songs that you'll hear this past decade.

#69

There Is No Enemy
Built To Spill
2009

Had this one came out in 2008, or at least had a little more time to churn through the ether, it could crack the Top-25, I think. It's just a fantastic album, and greatly surprised me, after I had kind of lost my love for Built to Spill a little bit. Now, I'm back in full on fanboy mode, listening to their entire catalog at least five times over the last couple of months. And we can thank this album. If I had to pick a guitar sound to take with me to heaven, I might opt for these guys. Just a great tone...Martsch is a phenom, though I'm not even sure if he shows up on the radar when those 'Greatest Guitarist' lists come out. Damn shame. This is a great album...one of the best of 2009.

#68

Parachutes
Coldplay
2000

These guys are a huge, horrible, U2 wannabe cliche now, but this album stands out as proof that sometimes what becomes popular at least can start out good. Yes, Yellow makes me want to shoot my face off with a shotgun, and seeing Chris Martin walk somberly on the beach singing close up into a camera is my idea of Hell...but outside of that track, this album really has no faults. Shiver is just explosive, and We Never Change is perfection. It gets lost in the shuffle, but this was largely an acoustic band, at this point. There's some electric guitar, but they were their best when it was stripped down a bit. Now? Chris Martin writes about rainbows and puppy dogs. That's what happens when you get ultra-famous, marry a boring actress, spit out a couple of kids, and pretend you're the love child of Bono and Thom Yorke.

#67

Rock N Roll
Ryan Adams
2003

Holy shit, at what point did this turn from a clusterfuck of an album to a near classic? I mean, seriously? I put this thing on now (thanks for leaving it at the house, Ryan), and the entire house blows up with awesomeness. Yes, he was a pain in the ass to Lost Highway back in the day, and yes, his heart must have been more into 'Love is Hell'...and yes, he was listening to too much Interpol, The Strokes, and The White Stripes at the time. I get it, I do...this one was panned, and in the moment, rightly so. It's been 6 years, though, and I can safely say that this one is aging like a 2003 Bordeaux (that was a good vintage, FYI). 1974 is a great rocker, meant to be played loud as fuck. The Parker Posey collaboration, Note to Self: Don't Die is somehow fascinatingly excellent. My favorite is probably Burning Photographs, which I'd put on my '2000-2009 Mix Tape', if I made one. I don't think any of this stuff appears live, and I'd be surprised if Adams even recognized it's existence, now. It's holding up well, though, and is worth a listen.

#66

The Woods
Sleater-Kinney
2005

I was taken a bit back when I sorted my list and found three Sleater-Kinney albums ranked very, very highly. In the first draft of the list, this was Top-50. I've reassessed, a bit, but this is still up there as the best all girl band of the decade (past two decades, if you're keeping count). I believe there are only two other female artists that will crack higher than this one. It's a man's world, but these girls rocked harder than just about any of them. This was their final album...they have since broken up, and they went out with a bang. The 11 minute epic, Let's Call it Love stands out as my favorite song in their catalog. Timeless music, too...ages exceptionally well.

#65

Person Pitch
Panda Bear
2007

I think Animal Collective is ruining music. Pardon me if I can't get on that bandwagon. They turn knobs, and we all flutter, and talk about how awesome they are. I'm also a huge hypocrite. There are several Animal Collective tracks that I secretly love, and this Panda Bear album blew me away the first time I heard it. Whatever genre it is (art-rock? post-rock? pretentious-hipster-douchebag-rock?), it's clear that Mr Bear was channeling the best of Brian Wilson, circa the 'Pet Sounds' era. The harmonized vocals sell this, but also the production quality, which is just off the charts, and deserves either full volume in a small room, or headphones and a quiet corner. I was sold after hearing the opening track, Comfy in Nautica, and it's loopy vocal/noise track. I can see the appeal of this variety of music, and I can appreciate that on the top of their game, Animal Collective is phenomenal. But this kind of music makes the future rockers of tomorrow lazy, IMO, and cheapens the overall aesthetic of 'Album Rock'. Almost certainly, my kid's kids will not buy albums. It'll be because of the influences like Panda Bear and Animal Collective that your Grandkids will laugh at how you used to sit and listen to the same band for 45 minutes. Albums are for old people. Thanks, Animal Collective, you douchebags.

#64

Time to Die
The Dodos
2009

My new favorite band. Thanks again to Ryan for leaving the vinyl over at the house...constant rotation, of late. Their previous album 'Visiter' placed way too low on this list, and should be revised much higher. I'm that sold on these guys, right now. This one had Phil Ek behind the knobs, which could be why it's so awesome, but is probably also why it's fairly different from their last album. The ramped up world beats are not so prominent, and the drums, in general. Somehow, I don't miss them...this album hits on all cylinders. This Is a Business holds some of that previous drum passion, and moves along like some kind of mountain ditty, with a machine gun in the back. Whirling guitars never sounded better. This one is held out of the Top-50 mainly because it's only been out for 2 months. Call me in a year, and we'll see how it's holding up.

#63

Cripple Crow
Devendra Banhart
2005

A sprawling masterpiece...songs are all over the place. Love the Allmusic styles on this one:

* Alternative/ Indie Rock
* Lo-Fi
* Alternative Folk
* Acid Folk
* Neo-Psychedelia

What the hell is Acid Folk? I have no idea, but I guess I dig it. I totally dig the songs in Spanish, maybe even more than the other material on the album. It's strange how something you can't understand can somehow still move you. It's a very long album...22 songs, though several clock in under 2 minutes. The ambling nature gives you the feel that it's one long piece of music, tied together. After a few songs, it's not even all that clear where one starts and the other begins...it's a very unique record, and one that I think is tops in Banhart's catalog.

#62

All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats
2002

AMG has four (FOUR!) albums that The Mountain Goats dropped in 2002...two of those four make the list, including this one. Awesomely lo-fi...the storytelling style in this one is so awesome. Tiny short stories, that are amazingly dense, despite rarely topping 3.5 minutes. The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton is one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs, of all time. And there are a shit ton of songs in Darnielle's canon. I don't know if anyone can match the songwriting style that he possesses. A truly unique creator in the music world.

#61

They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
Liars
2001

These guys are truly unique, or at least were to me, back in 2001, when I first heard this one. Nothing like it, IMO. Angular guitars, crazy drums, deftly used samples...fuzzed out lyrics and pretentious as fuck song titles. These guys almost try to make you not like them, just because you're not cool enough to understand what they are about. It's smart punk rock, I think. Mr. Your on Fire Mr. is one of the catchiest songs of the entire decade. The almost kid's toy drums, that morph into a chugging guitar line...it's stunning. Nothing Is Ever Lost or Can Be Lost My Science Friend, and it's rolling percussion, and that almost annoying electronic noise...I can't explain it, this shit is just great. Their later material was very good, but never really hit home like this one did. A stunning debut from Liars...highly recommend listening to this one as loud as you can.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #80-71

2009-11-19T15:00:00.004-05:00

#80

Souljourney
Gillian Welch
2003

I can't believe it's been 2003 since a new Welch solo album. She tours (is going to be with Rawlings in support of his new album), but I guess just hasn't sat down to make something happen. It's a damn shame, too, because this stuff if fucking gold. Best true 'folk' artist in the game. This one, though, is more rockin' than her previous albums. There's actually drums here! The additional instruments and production don't overshadow those pipes, though, as evidenced when she belts out Oh me oh my oh/would you look at Ms Ohio/she's runnin' around with the rag top down in the opening track. Her No One Knows My Name is a great reworking of her Orphan Girl, from her fucking amazing debut, 'Revival'. Those two songs are so incredibly sad, but somehow they overshadow their sadness with hope. That, in a nutshell is what makes Welch so special of an artist. She somehow blends a traditional aesthetic with a modern sensibility, but I'll be damned if you couldn't take her back to 1930, drop her in, and she'd rule it. Hell, she's as homely as a depression era dirt farmer. You couldn't have cast her any better. She makes M Ward seem like a total poseur.

#79

Get Lonely
The Mountain Goats
2006

Jesus, who pissed in Darnielle's cornflakes? I love it when this guy goes thematic. You could put this one up in the sad song Pantheon, for sure. Every song is about loneliness, making the title perfectly literal. Why beat around the bush? Is it sadder than the previous record, about his abusive stepfather? Fuck, I don't know. I'm thinking this is the kind of stuff a great artist pumps out to either stave off, or bring on suicide. I guess he's in a better place, though, since his stuff has moved on to other lyrical territory, since then. This album is like an existential study on sadness. His girlfriend must have filmed one of those 'Fuck 500 Guys in 30 Minutes' videos, or something. Really dig the sad piano line on Song For Lonely Giants. If you ever get dumped, here's your album to revel in your loneliness to.

#78

The Tyranny of Distance
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
2001

Holy fuck, I used to listen to this album a lot. I think what gets lost in the shuffle about Ted Leo, who was the poster boy for the punk infused indie rock period that seemed to fizzle about halfway through the decade, is how awesome of a lyricist he is. He's funny as hell, and it shines through in this material. Snarky would be a good descriptor, but not pretentious. Listen to Squeaky Fingers, for instance. Brilliant song, brilliant lyrics. Ted Leo has largely disappeared. Remember when Hearts of Oak had all that crazy hype? Yeah, we'll talk about that in a little bit, but if you wanted to introduce yourself to Leo, this would be a the right album to start with.

#77

The Stage Names
Okerrvil River
2007

I whiffed on these guys, initially. Thought they were an Arcade Fire cover band. Shows that ignorance can get best of even my great ear. I don't think I really gave them any due until my friend Andrew saw them out West, and I forced myself to go back and listen to some stuff. This album is just fantastic. Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe does not disappoint. Love the 'whoo-hoos' in that one towards the end. They have a flair for the dramatic, and almost, I think, see themselves as writing storyboards, rather than just crafting songs. This comes across in their live shows, at least what I saw on the recent ACL...I could see these guys kicking out a true Rock Opera one day. Maybe I'm buying into their aesthetic a little too hard, but it feels like the best is yet to come with these guys. Chick guitar player, too. That's always a bonus.

#76

Como Te Llama?
Albert Hammond, Jr
2008

Who knew the rhythm guitarist from the Strokes was actually good? Not me. I have still not heard that other album he did, back in 2006, and probably would have missed this one, had it not been for my friend Andrew bringing it over last year. Damn, what a good pop album this is, though. These songs are catchy as hell. GFC was one of the better songs from last year, and I'd put it in a list of singles from the Decade in a heartbeat. I smell some Costello-cum-Police in him, though, like on the quasi-reggae song Borrowed Time. You just don't hear a lot of stuff like this in today's indie rock scene. I have no idea if he'll continue doing solo stuff. Lord knows, the Strokes are done. That solo stuff from the lead singer is atrocious, so if Albert wants to keep kicking out the jams, I think he could make a good career of it.

#75

Pneumonia
Whiskeytown
2001

Technically recorded in 1999, this one didn't see the light of day until 2001. Record label issues and band troubles (they were basically broken up, minus Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary by this point) kept this one on the shelf until after Ryan Adams had actually had two solo albums out (and at least one other solo album recorded, but also shelved). This one gets lost in the lexicon, thanks to the fact that everyone is jumping over themselves to anoint 'Stranger's Almanac' as Whiskeytown's opus. So why did this one fall out of favor, after once being considered a 'lost classic'? I have no idea. Maybe the fans missed some of that old school twang, or maybe by the time it was released, Adams had found his voice as a solo artist, so it was no longer vital.

What we have, though, is a damn fine example of great country twinged rock n roll. Jacksonville Skyline shines as well as 95% of their previous output, while songs like Sit and Listen, To The Rain basically foreshadowed Ryan Adams from 2002-2004. I'd love to hear a hardcore Beatles fan's take on Mirror, Mirror, which I think is Ryan Adams most obvious mimic of a 'British Invasion' style song in his catalog. The songwriting was handled mostly by Adams/Daly (who rocks out the awesome pedal steel on this one), with Caitlin Cary only popping up twice. She was marginalized, to the point where many call this a Ryan Adams solo project. All that is so far in the past now, though, that it's getting fuzzier around the edges, and what we're left with is a great album, from a great band. Better than 'Stranger's Almanac'? Maybe not. But just as vital, and we're better off having this one out there.

One last notable about this one; there is a collaboration with James Iha, of Smashing Pumpkins fame...Don't Be Sad. I have long been puzzled about how Adams came to work with Iha, who at the time was in the biggest rock band in the world. Go figure. Good song, too.

#74

Destroyer's Rubies
Destroyer
2006

I will admit to being a bit ignorant on this guy. Saw him live, as my main introduction to his sound, and enjoyed the shit out of it. This is the only album of his that cracked my Ipod, for whatever reason, and I enjoy the shit out of it, as well, pretty regularly. FWIW, I seem to like that Swan Lake stuff more than his other material, outside of this album. I don't know what to make of that. Anyway, he's a genre bender. I have no idea how to tell someone what he sounds like, much less figure out if someone would like it. His voice is an acquired taste, to say the least, and there are so many key changes and disjointed melodies, you'd think the man was mainlining heroin mid-song. The epic opener, Rubies would be a great litmus test for someone trying to give this guy a shot. Like it? Keep listening. Don't like it? Go listen to your fucking Lady Ga-Ga, and get the fuck away from me.

#73

The Shepherd's Dog
Iron & Wine
2007

If you don't like the tinkly, quiet, laid back Iron & Wine sound, this is your album. It's got world beats, crazy rhythms, and even ELECTRIC GUITAR. Wow. Seriously, though, Sam Beam only sounded like he was recording in his basement on the first two I&W albums because...that's where he was recording those albums. I believe his vision was always larger, though he:

1. Lacked the chops or the backing band.
and
2. Was a film professor moonlighting as a musician, not the other way around.

Now? He's got some backing. He's learned to play well with others. The songwriting is still freaking outstanding. Heavy imagery, great metaphors, and catch as fuck choruses. But what he's mixed in is a bunch of new ideas about percussion, and some loopy electronic elements. I spoiled myself on this album, initially, by listening to a live show he did of a lot of the material in a stripped down, acoustic setting. It sounded like what I had expected I&W to sound like. I wasn't expecting him to take the Woman King EP and extrapolate off of that even further out of his original territory. So when I heard the release, officially, it took me a long time to get into the groove.

I think it's safe to say, though, that his evolving sound is good for all of us (including M&M candy, and movie soundtracks). Resurrection Fern, House by the Sea, and Lovesong of the Buzzard are all just freaking amazing. This one fits neatly into his catalog, and now two years later, is making me thirst for even more creativity and growth in future albums.

#72

Magnolia Electric Co
Songs:Ohia
2003

Molina has eschewed some of the pallor that hung over the previous Songs:Ohia albums, and really sounds more like his band-to-be, Magnolia Electric Co, than ever before. I'm in love with the man's tone on the guitar. You can call it Neil Young-esque, and you'd be right, but that doesn't really give Molina the credit he deserves. It's more than just mimicking Young's licks, it's adding on to them. I wish I knew more about the chick who sings on Peoria Lunch Box Blues. That is a haunting tune. The two bookends on this disc are both epic rockers, and would probably appeal to anyone who likes to tune in to the Classic Rock station on their local dial. I could see my Dad digging some Molina stuff. Hold On Magnolia actually reminds me a little bit of Radiohead, for some reason. Who knows. This is also the first of three albums that Steve Albini produced for Molina.

#71

Gather, Form and Fly
Megafaun
2009

Maybe I've fallen too hard, too fast on this one, but damn it sounds good. I really regret not getting to see these live with the boys earlier in the year. Kicking myself over that one...They lack a real good singer, which is why I think they went for that harmonized 'campfire sing-a-long' style, as AMG puts it. The musicianship and production, however, is dynamite, and there are few albums that have hit me right out of the gate like this one. Maybe it's my rural lean in my musical tastes these days, or maybe I've just got them wrapped up in the Bon Iver afterglow. Darkest Hour, with it's rainfall segment, that slowly morphs into the song, is stunning, and maybe the best song of 2009. It's kind of bluegrassy, and there's all kinds of instruments all over this one. Will it stand the test of time, and hang around all these other great albums over the next decade? Who knows, but my Ipod thinks it's one of the best albums of all time, if you sort by listens. And my Ipod is rarely wrong.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #90-81

2009-11-19T09:02:00.005-05:00

#90

Boys and Girls in America
The Hold Steady
2006

I've got a working theory: The Hold Steady is the 2000's version of Hootie and the Blowfish. Now wait, I'm not finished...hear me out. I've been working on this theory for a while. What was Hootie, when you boil it down? I'm talking pre-Hold My Hand/Let Her Cry Hootie? They were a KICK ASS barband. I remember hearing 'Kootchypop', which was their pre-label deal release, and thinking 'Fuck, this band is just a rollicking good time'. They packed the little clubs in. Did they deserve to move 15 million, or whatever it was, units of that first album? Hell no, and the backlash from the Dan Marino love was well deserved. But, look at their general formula...Simple song structures, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus, full sound (they are loud, live)...rock songs, man. They sing about drinking, getting laid, getting hurt in relationships, and having a good time. That is all The Hold Steady is, except they draw from a different set of influences. Hootie was REM. The Hold Steady is Springsteen and Thin Lizzy. It's anthem rock...arena rock, if you will. Smoky bar rock n roll, meant to jam to while your trying to fuck the girl with puffy hair, who you've just watched throw down three jager bombs in 15 minutes. Hold Steady is this decade's Hootie and the Blowfish. I'm convinced of it. They will meet a better fate (they are not overhyped, and they are generally better musicians and songwriters), but the formula is the same.

As far as this album goes, holy fuck does it have some good songs on it. Chips Ahoy! is straight out of the Thin Lizzy playbook, with it's out of your gourd riffs. You Can Make Him Like You is one of the best songs of the decade, with it's final repetitive stanza...There's always other boys/There's always other boyfriends/There's always other boys/And you can make him like you is classic bar band territory. My fave, though, is Southtown Girls, maybe the best album closer of the decade. When in doubt, fuck the girl from the other side of the tracks. Southtown girls wont blow you away/but you know that they'll stay...Hootie could have wrote that.

#89

We Shall All Be Healed
The Mountain Goats
2004

This was the first album I heard from Darnielle that wasn't stripped down lo-fi. I missed the boat on Tallahassee, somehow, and had to work back to it. You can imagine my surprise, when I found out what this guy would sound like if he cut an album that wasn't on his 4-track in his basement...it's damned good! John Vanderslice was behind the knobs, making this album's studio time one of the first stops I'll make when I get my time machine up and running. Even with the extra production, the actual band, and the unmuffled vocals, it's the same formula that brought him huge victory in the lo-fi 90's...crazily strummed guitar parts, nasally snark ridden vocals, and the driest wit in indie rock. I think this would actually be a great starting point for this band...or maybe Tallahassee, which we'll talk about later on.

#88

Neon Bible
Arcade Fire
2007

While not nearly as great as the previous album, this thing is a fucking party. Black Mirror is a great track that kicks off this album. I love the deep tuba line at the end of that one. Really, the first four tracks leave you feeling like they are still working off that old magic. I really feel like the second half of the album loses a little something, for some reason or another. Not saying it's bad, and I've seen a lot of the material live (on youtube, ACL, etc), and it shines in that format...but they kind of need that narrative that they based their debut off of. These guys could wind up being the best band in the world.

#87

In Our Nature
Jose Gonzalez
2007

Chilean born, moved to Sweden, and classically trained in the Spanish style of guitar play...I downloaded something off of one of his old hardcore albums, from before his slow acoustic stuff, and it was horrible. He does a great cover on this one of Massive Attack's Teardrop (the theme song to House, FYI). Down The Line is also a great one. It might not be 'Veneer', which earned him a lot of critical acclaim, but this one is damned close to as good. It'll be really interesting to see how/if he can evolve as an artist, or if he'll stay in his narrow niche. He's got crazy chops on guitar, though.

#86

Wincing the Night Away
The Shins
2007

I was surprised that this one wasn't higher, to be honest. There's just a ton of great albums left on this list. It's not as good as their two albums left coming for a couple of reasons.

1. The production on this one is just a little too slick.
2. They aren't really pushing their sound into new territory, overall.

I swear, 2007 was the year everyone tried to mimic 'Pet Sounds', and see if they could be Brian Wilson. The Shins were guilty, but also incredibly good at aping that aesthetic. I always look for a great opener on a good album, and Sleeping Lessons really succeeds here. Phantom Limb is possibly my favorite Shins song ever, on paper, though I doubt it will change your overall worldview. With what's his face now working with Danger Mouse, we're possibly on the cusp of some cool shit coming from these guys. They are already past the normal age of bands that learn new tricks, though, so their current version of the indie pop sound might just have to be enough to continue changing our lives.

#85

Moon and Antarctica
Modest Mouse
2000

I wax and wane on this release...right now, I'm a little down on it. Modest Mouse is just one of those bands, like Mars Volta, for example, that I know I'm supposed to like more, but just can't get over something innate that kills it for me. For some reason, the dynamic for me is Death Cab vs Modest Mouse...I am on the Death Cab side of indie rock. It's more melodic, straight forward, and the lyrics are (IMO) better on the whole. That's not to say I don't respect Modest Mouse (who I think is better live, FWIW). This is probably their finest work, as their later output this decade has been largely 'meh'. It's interesting that I have gotten into 'prog' a bit more over the past five years or so, I just don't relate more to Modest Mouse's variety of key changes and syncopated rhythms. Still, this is a fine work, and worthy of inclusion in the Top-100, and is a chewy experience, if you're inclined to take a dive.

#84

The Crane Wife
The Decemberists
2006

For those who didn't see the riffage of 'Hazards of Love' coming, I point back to this body of work as evidence that you weren't paying attention. These guys clearly love the sound of guitars, as much as they love rhyming 7 syllable words, dressing up like it's 1850, and singing indie rock sea shanties. I love the 'epic-ness' of this album. Just a great, great album of weird, nerd rock. It's a loosely constructed concept album that has prog-like characteristics. It almost defies description, to be honest. If you can handle the nasally, pretentious lyrics, you might just fall in love with these guys right off the bat. I didn't give it it's due at the time, but I'm taking a good look back these days, and there's a lot to like.

#83

Cardinology
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
2008

Perhaps one of the most frustratingly good albums of the decade. It's flaws remind me of this girl who works for GE...she's got a smoking hot body, an exotic look (from Spain, maybe), and other than this big, red, Gorbachev-like birthmark right on her cheek, ruining an otherwise beautiful face. But she's still very pretty, despite that big red mark that looks kind of like Norway, with the top end broken off. That is this album, in a nutshell. Tossaways like Magick are almost redeemable, when you take the album as a whole. Or take Sink Ships, which is somehow the best and the worst song that Adams has written in years...just absolutely frustrating. Take these two stanzas, which occur back to back in the song:

This position is not open now for applicants
The application forms got shredded
There was faulty wording in the documents

I can still hear you laughing
Coming up the rickety stairs
Laughing as the springtime
Filled your lungs with air

The first stanza misses the meter of the song, sounds disjointed, and might be one of the worst 'love didn't work out' metaphors ever put in the middle of a rock song. The second stanza is just beautiful poetry, with great imagery, and fits the meter of the song, and sends the whole song soaring. He put a raw demo version on his website recently, and it's even better, because he tones down the whole 'do-cu-ment' enunciation. This song needed another week in the percolator, and it could have been epic.

You can see why Adams and the Cardinals are 'on a break'. After three or four collaborations, where Adams finally was able to flesh out his OWN sound, things are kind of in a rut. Go Easy almost feels like a mashup of material from the past 5 years, but it still sounds good. Standouts like Natural Ghost prove that he still has it, though.

Take a picture of your life for a second now freeze it and look at the screen
What parts of you were daydreams, illusions, and other things
These things they pass in time but the moments are real and it's hard sometimes

Right on.

#82

Keep It Hid
Dan Auerbach
2009

The front man/guitar player makes a solo album, and I think it's better than anything the Black Keys have done as a collective. Maybe it's that there are some more acoustic-y moments? I don't know. The guitars still shine, and it's all fuzzed out and awesome. I don't really know why the drummer wasn't along for the ride here, as there is not really a dynamic sea change in the overall sound. But this is the one I listen to, and even though it's only 10 months old, it sounds like an old friend. Could be the cocaine?

#81

Trials and Errors
Magnolia Electric Co.
2005

Not sure if there is another live album on my list, offhand, so this could be considered the best live album of the decade. Recorded in 2003, on the backs of Jason Molina 'retiring' the Songs: Ohia name. This is sort of their debut album, and in my mind really feels like a normal release. Neil Young riffs, and long as fuck songs. You can really play 'Name that Neil Young Riff' on a lot of these. For instance, the opener has a stone cold electric 'Heart of Gold' riff, changed up just a hair. The lyrics are still dark and depressing, like the older Songs: Ohia stuff, but the amped up sound gives things a lot more space to be dark, but still melt your face.

Click HERE to go back to Ron's Albums of the Decade Main Page
Click HERE to go back to #100-91
Click HERE to go on to #80-71

Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #100-91

2009-11-19T08:44:00.002-05:00

#100

Figure 8
Elliott Smith
2000

Pardon me if I don't blow Elliott Smith's dead cock all that much. I'm not ready to anoint him some spot in the pantheon of great, dead before their time artists. Don't get me wrong, though, this is a great album. 'X/O' was better, IMO, but that was in the 90's. The Everything Reminds Me of Her into Everything Means Nothing to Me segue remains one of the best 'related, but unrelated' song coupling on an album that I have ever heard. If this album suffers, it's that it's maybe a little too long. Son of Sam was supposed to make him a superstar, but it just didn't happen. In the Lost and Found (Honky Bach)/The Roost, and it's Western saloon piano parts is just amazing. Wish he wouldn't of killed himself, but his music was pain, and that's what you get sometimes, I guess.

#99

One Bedroom
Sea and Cake
2003

This is about as Sunshine Pop as I get. It's also one of the more electronic albums on this list. These guys had a sound that was about 10 years too early. If they debuted now, they would be huge. Shoulder Length is one of my favorites, but Interiors, and little loopy guitar riff, tops it. Great cover of Bowie's Sound and Vision (I swear I hear this song on that commercial where the people are floating around in bubbles, listening to music). If that song could be any gayer, Sea and Cake took the bar and set it really high. Music for a good mood. Hard to beat your wife to this one...pretty much the polar opposite of that Elliott Smith album!

#98

White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
2001

I read a blurb about their live show, back in 2000/2001, and kazaa'd 'De Stijl' (which I think is their best record). I didn't even really listen to it at the time. Then I saw Hotel Yorba late night on MTV, and had to go get the (by this point) much hyped 'White Blood Cells' album. Fuck man, these guys were amazing, when there wasn't anything else like it. Raw riffage, sloppy drums, and a fuck-all attitude. This was back before we knew these two crazies used to be married, and everyone thought they were brother and sister. Before 'Cold Mountain', the supergroup fad, and overexposure. The Same Boy You've Always Known seems so different from something like Ball and a Biscuit, it's like they were a different band. What surprises me, going back, is how much acoustic guitar there is on this album. It's not all power chords and yelping lyrics. Jack White had the world on his platter, but this band was/is too one-dimensional to be groundbreaking, anymore.

#97

You In Reverse
Built to Spill
2006

Just listen to Conventional Wisdom...that's the essence of indie rock, right there. These guys do it better than just about anyone. I have long thought they peaked in the late 90's, and that their watershed moment was an album that will be coming up later, but I'm really reassessing their legacy. These guys are still making great music, it's just coming from a different place. It's grown up, I guess. Or maybe I've grown up, and finally caught up with where they are moving to. I could listen to those clean guitar licks in Goin' Against Your Mind all day.

#96

Wild Mountain Nation
Blitzen Trapper
2007

The title track is one of the best one of the catchiest riffs that have ever come out of rock n roll. It's got some Zep drums, too (sound-wise, not talent-wise)...that tinny, echo-y, bombastic, spacious sound. They were lauded as psychedelic-rock's new face, and I can see where they get some Grateful Dead/New Riders of the Purple Sage influences, on this album...but they are a little deeper than just a ripoff of stoner bands from the 70's. I'd say a song like Murder Babe is almost more Big Star, than Jerry Garcia. Shit does make you want to grow a beard, and start a rock band, though. They make it sound so easy.

#95

Rejoicing in the Hands
Devandra Banhart
2004

This is the first of two albums in 2004 from Banhart, and the one I like the most of the pair...they were recorded together. Beautiful guitar work, great lyrics (they even sound great when he goes Spanish on our asses, like on Todo los Dolores). My favorite, and one of his best songs, is The Body Breaks. Where Sam Beam is unpretentious and earnest, Banhart is the polar opposite. He yearns to be earnest, but it all just comes out a little uppity. That's ok, by me, because it's part of what makes him great. I'm not sure who's more eccentric...Devendra or Destroyer. I am super pissed that he beat me to the song title Tit Smoking in the Temple of Artesan Mimicry, though. That was going to be my #1 jam.

#94

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Deathcab for Cutie
2000

This is back when DCfC was a little less cohesive, and a little more experimental. You can almost say they sold out a bit. I used to mock them as a rich man's Jimmy Eat World, but then I figured out just how bad Jimmy Eat World was, and stopped using that joke. It's taken a while to grow on me, but this album, now almost 10 years old, is creeping into my subconscious more and more. Company Calls/Company Calls Epilogue spark some of what was to come, I think. That AMG review makes it seem like they'd arrived, but I don't think they really had. Gibbard and company were clearly still finding their feet.

#93

One Beat
Sleater-Kinney
2002

This one hits you like a banshee, right out the gate, and doesn't let up until it's done. One Beat -> Faraway will take the breath away. This is an album meant to be played at '11', which is rare for a female group. This shit makes Lita Ford and Joan Jett blush. The drumming, which I think is S-K's strong suit, is at it's most 'robotic' on this one. If you want to run my wife off, crank up Oh!. She hates S-K's vocals, and this one hits her the hardest. She'd probably leave me, if these guys were the soundtrack of my entire life.

#92

In the Future
Black Mountain
2008

Another great Jagjaguwar release...love that label, these days. I think this one is leaps and bounds over their first full length album, and I find myself listening to this one (on vinyl, of course, thanks Ryan) frequently these days. I love the 70's metal/psychedelic feel of these guys. You could totally do lines of coke off of this album cover. For me, it starts with a bang, with Stormy High, and doesn't really let up. It's a thinking man's 70's metal homage, if you will.

#91

Wilco (The Album)
Wilco
2009

Let me get this out of the way: this is a solid album, with no real holes. Bull Black Nova is dominant. Wilco (The Song) is catchy, with a great rolling drum piece. A song like I'll Fight almost sounds like it could have been on 'Being There'. It's not a bad disc, at all. But it lacks a certain something. I just can't get into it...it doesn't engage, like other Wilco material. It doesn't make me want to play it 30 times in a row. They didn't exactly mail it in...I think the performances are solid. If anything they are just in a slight creative rut...maybe touring too much, or in need of some personnel upheaval. One thing that did surprise me was that Nels Cline seemed to almost be muzzled. His freakouts, which made the last couple of albums special, were very few and far between here. It's the atonal Bull Black Nova where he shines the best, IMO. I hate to say it, but a lot of this album screams 'we're getting old'. The Adult Contemporary Grammy could be on it's way!

Click HERE to go back to Ron's Albums of the Decade Main Page
Click HERE to go on to #90-81

11/17/09 Interesting Releases

2009-11-16T20:29:00.002-05:00

dave rawlings machine - a friend of a friend
miles davis - live in vienna 1973
norah jones - the fall (ryan adams and will sheff (among others) each worked with norah on a song
mumford & sons - sigh no more
real estate - real estate

thats all i have....anyone have anything else to have. i'm super interested to hear dave rawlings and miles davis!!

The Lost Recordings of Ryan Adams: 'Destroyer'

2009-11-12T15:20:00.004-05:00

It's common knowledge the Ryan Adams writes 14 songs a day, cuts three albums a week, and still finds time to operate the weirdest website on the internet. Well, maybe only that third point is totally true, but the man is as prolific as they come in the music business. There are a whole host of albums that were 'shelved' or never intended for actual release...and 'Destroyer' is one of them. I had originally thought this was a Post-Heartbreaker effort, done around the time of '48 Hours' (another shelved project), but this isn't the case.. Turns out that it's an album that was recorded before the Heartbreaker sessions, sometime in 1999.

Like all things that don't technically 'exist', this album was incredibly easy to procure through illicit means. Ryan, I promise I'll buy the material if you've ever got a price tag on it. I neglected to look at the track listing upon download, figuring I'd recognize some tunes, and wanted to be surprised.

Right off the bat, I knew what I had. You see, kicking around in my CD book that occupies my car is a bootleg of some Ryan Adams gig from October of 1999, and I instantly recognized the opening track Born Yesterday, which also kicks off most of the live sets from that week long or so tour that he was doing on the material from this album. That show has long been a favorite of mine, and I was stoked to realize that I had most likely fallen into 'official' recordings of some of those great songs. You might also know that Born Yesterday is on '48 Hours', but the version here is a totally different mix, with Gillian Welch offering some assists on the vocal duties. Perhaps the most important thing to note on this entire album is her presence, as a backing vocalist on what seems like just about every song on the disc.

I have been fascinated with the Ryan Adams era that intersects with Welch/Rawlings, and feel that nothing they've ever collaborated on has ever gone awry (well, except for that show where Adams kicked out the fan for heckling...). Hell, you could make a strong argument that Rawlings (and to a lesser degree, Welch) are the reason 'Heartbreaker' is so tragically great. It's after these guys stopped being cozy that Adams appeared to go off on his little tangents; a litany of unreleased material, smashed together Label releases, band changes, and running up Rock Legend Widow's AMEX accounts. Shit like that. What is clear from this recording, which has the Rawlings/Welch footprint, even more than 'Heartbreaker', is that Adams was in a great songwriting place. I don't know if he's tapped the Americana/Roots influences any better, other than pieces of 'Heartbreaker', and it's almost certainly Adams that shines through. There's no way you could really play the 'Who's Adams Trying to Sound Like' game here. All the songs are HIM. It took him all the way to 'Jacksonville City Nights' to get back to that, I believe.

The shuffling country song Poison & the Pain, which I had never heard before, is a perfect example of this. It's sloppy, rambling, and emotive. Welch provides some seriously out-of-tune, but oh so perfect vocals over the chorus. You could picture this one being plucked outside the barn, on a Fall night, during the harvest. I'd say this type of songwriting is a direct effect of working with Rawlings/Welch, who write Americana narratives, maybe better than any contemporary songwriters who cross over into the mainstream (Steve Earle comes to mind as competition).

Rainy Days is another standout, with it's layered harmonized vocals, throughout. Welch/Adams compliment each other, but still remain singularly out-of-tune. This track is stripped down, but with a tinkling xylophone like instrument adding a little extra. It's remarkable how quiet the middle of this album is, just in general. Not until the closer, a cover of Welch's Time (The Revelator) do they even plug in.

The studio recordings of these songs are surprisingly great, compared to my perceptions of the live versions. Statuettes With Wounds, co-written with Van Alston (who was featured heavily in the live sets that presented this material in 10/1999), could have certainly have made the 'Heartbreaker' cut. It's a lonely ballad of rejection, with Adams belying his own pain with a great chorus:

Is it funny that you're laughing at me/The joke's on you/Cause I feel sorry for him

Only two cuts here actually made it onto 'Heartbreaker'. One is Bartering Lines, and on this disc we're presented with a strong duet over the chorus with Welch that just freaking pops, and rivals the haunting version that would become the official release. If anything, that backwoods drawl that Adams pulls out of his Easter NC upbringing so rarely these days, is most prominent in this rendition. The entire song seems to have been reworked for 'Heartbreaker'. It evokes more of a tribal Indian rhythm here, and without words might convince you it was time to do the Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop.

In My Time of Need stands out as the gem of the album, perhaps because of it's familiarity. Such an earnest song, which Adams has said he wrote from the perspective of man in his 70's. The reflective 'look back at love' type song can be cliche, but the delivery (which could actually be the same cut/mix from 'Heartbreaker') elevates the song past any cheesiness, and takes you into the soul of the song like only the best songwriters can do.

Material like this is usually for completists. Fans who are OCD and fanatical will seek this stuff out, trade the tapes/CD-R's/mp3's (depending on how old you are), but it will forever be off the radar for the casual guys. That's a damn shame, because what we've got here is a great piece of American songwriting, and it's stuck in 'unreleased' purgatory. I'd rate the final four songs, Time of Need/Bartering Lines/Memories of You/Time (The Revelator) as equal to anything else in his catalog. The soaring Welch cover that closes this thing out is a huge exclamation point on an album that should become a necessity for anyone who claims to appreciate earnest Americana/Alt-Country music. The reworking is straight out of the Neil Young book on riffage, and Welch's classic takes on a grittiness that almost surpasses her seminal work. You can see why she'd have shared such great material with Adams, who must have been this close to embarking on a Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris type jaunt with Welch. Damn all, if that wouldn't have been amazing.

Grade: An Unreleased 9.0

Destroyer Track Listing
h/t answeringbell.com

Reviewed Album Log

2009-11-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

You can find a log of reviewed albums from this site here. This will be maintained and bumped, periodically, and I'll put a direct link on the sidebar.

Pitchfork Rebuttal #1: Molina and Johnson

2009-11-11T11:30:00.001-05:00

Molina and Johnson

by Molina and Johnson

2009

Secretly Canadian

Pitchfork gave this guy a 5.1. For those who don't know, this is a collaboration between Jason Molina (Songs:Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co) and Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel). According to legend, it was cut during a 10 day session at Molina's house. I'm much more familiar with Molina, who has a long indie history that has shown up on the radar more frequently than Johnson's material. I have heard the 2008 double LP of Centro-matic and SSG, I guess twice, and it was quite good. Something that I would like to delve deeper into.

So, there's the backdrop. Call it a stripped down supergroup, if you will, since those are all the rage. So, what's wrong with Pitchfork's review? They paint this album as a dark 'funereal' experience, drab in the middle, and altogether unexciting. That is certainly a believable picture, if you listened to this thing in a vacuum. But what I want to ask them is, what the hell did you expect? If you'd have handed this to me, told me who it was, and asked me what I thought it would sound like before you let me listen...I'd say, 'A 50 minute poem about how sad life is, and how it's never going to get any better'. That's what these guys were born to do...somber, introspective music. Sure, Molina could have brought more guitars, a la 'Magnolia Electric Co', versus the more downbeat alter ego 'Songs:Ohia' sound, but I fully expected this album to be sad out of the box. And it is...it is.

I listened to this album yesterday, as the remnants of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida pummeled us with rain. I was in the drive thru at Zaxby's. My shirt was soaked from running through a parking lot 3 minutes earlier, and I was cold. Basically, everything about that moment kind of sucked. Tinkling in the background was a piano/guitar effort on this album; don't even remember the exact track. It was perfect. I'm guessing that Stephen M. Deusner, who wrote that Pitchfork review, just didn't have a cloudy day to share this album with. I'm a sad album guy, especially when it's a sad album day. You certainly wouldn't throw this on as a backdrop for Wii night, with your 6 most fun friends. If you hold it against a standard that it can't stand up to, this album is a failure, as would anything that is nuanced like this is. Imagine your worst day. Now imagine the soundtrack that would sum that up. That's this album.

I'd rate it out pretty strongly. In fact, I'm prepared to give this one, say a 7.8. I'm not going to burn down any buildings if it's not on the All Time Lists in 10 years, and I doubt that was anything near what the two guys set out to make. Seems to me like they just wanted to share some pain through music together, and by that measure, they succeeded to their maximum ability. I'll certainly listen to it again, and this definitely endears me more to these two's respective solo endeavors.

Ron's Pitchfork Rebuttal Score (RPRS): 7.8
Pitchfork's Score: 5.1

Pitchfork Douche Score (RPRS minus Pitchfork Score): 3.7

Pitchfork Rebuttals

2009-11-11T08:02:00.000-05:00

I think a regular feature on this site will be a 'Pitchfork Rebuttal'...a contrast review on something they've missed the mark on (either too low a score, or too high), and need to be called out for it.

I've been reading Pitchfork for years, pretty much on a daily basis. I consider them to be a vital piece of the 'Indie Rock' scene, and recognize them as perhaps the biggest trend setter in the entire game. They can make or break a band, with the wave of a 'Best New Music' alert. They are also pretentious indie rock douchebags, to the 10th degree. That means you have to put your BS detector up, sometimes. Like when they reviewed Wilco's new album, and basically trashed it for 7 paragraphs, then ultimately gave it a 7.something.

Am we right where they are wrong? Well, I think the key answer to that question is that there is no right or wrong. It's all subjective, in the end. But perhaps even a group lacking in true 'Street Cred' or 'Indie Rock Critic Certification' can lend something to the debate. Or maybe we're just douchebags, too.

Perfect Soundtrack to a Rainy Night

2009-11-10T21:28:00.001-05:00

This album sounds so damn good on vinyl too.

That is all.

Austin City Limits Review - M Ward and Okkervil River

2009-11-10T14:06:00.000-05:00

Finally had the chance to sit down and watch the ACL from 10/31 (original airdate on PBS in Greenville, SC), thought I'd crank out a bit of a review.

M Ward - *snooze*...seriously. I actually tried to put this on, just to see a little clip, the other night. The wife immediately nipped that one, saying it was going to put her to sleep. It is a dreamy little set, but I guess that sums up my man M Ward pretty well. Things pick up a little bit, when he gets the female backing vocalists in for a few songs, but having just watched it, nothing but the instrumental noodling he does at the end sticks out as memorable.

I will say, he looks like he fell out of some old Cuban war film from the 50's, or something. Strange looking dude.

As far as Okkervil River is concerned, they are worthy of bumping this ACL from 'delete that shit fast' to 'keep forever' status. Nice little performance. It's the first time I think I've seen the band, in the flesh, and I was surprised to see a girl on guitar. Who knew? Her chops were a little lacking, but she's there more for atmospheric sound, as far as I can tell. Proves you don't have to be a technical wizard to be successful in a good band. Sheff, the frontman, is obviously the driving force behind the band, and he's a pretty electric performer, even on TeeVee.

Material-wise, they showed their most recognizable songs, as ACL always does when they trim a performance down to 30 minutes. I'd have loved to have seen these guys get a full hour. I did get a good chuckle watching the percussionist/multi-instrumental guy. Sure, guys like that play a pivotal role in the band...but you just wonder if they are getting the table scraps off the band's backstage spread, or maybe being forced to sleep with all the ugliest groupies.

The interview with Sheff at the end of the episode is worth the price of admission. He comes off pretentious and hyperbolic...almost a caricature of what you'd expect an art-rocker type would be. Paraphrase: 'If you want to be a good writer, you have to set out aiming for better than Shakespeare'. Ridiculous, but whatever he needs to light his creative fire, good for him. Sounded more like he was just trying to sound important. No self-deprecation. The percussionist was sitting beside him, nodding...the only way to elevate your level of maraca play is to set out to be better than Bez Berry!

Still rocked, though.

Grades:
M Ward - C
Okkervil River - B+

Naming the Site

2009-11-09T21:29:00.000-05:00

Ryan is opposed to The Indie Dish as a name. He's looking for something less 'paparazzi'-feeling. It's an easy change, so I'm up for something else.

His suggestions:

Carry the Zero (named after Built to Spill's song)
Something Neil Young related

I'm open to other suggestions, and thought we might collect them here.

Album Release Calendar - 11/10/09

2009-11-09T21:08:00.000-05:00

According to Metacritic, there's not a ton coming out tomorrow of note.

Tori Amos has Midwinter Graces dropping, and while I really can't say that I've listened much to her material since the album where she's breastfeeding a baby cow, it might be worth a listen to see where she's at these day. Some additional digging needs to be done, to see if anything else is going to fall under the radar.

*UPDATE*

Andrew has called attention to these releases tomorrow, some of which are already out, just coming to vinyl:

Wilco - Being There (vinyl reissue)
The Cribs - Ignore the Ignorant
Devendra Banhart - What Will Be (vinyl)
Ola Podrida - Belly of the Lion
J. Tillman - Year in the Kingdom (vinyl)

Notable, indeed.

First Four Neil Young Albums Being Re-Issued (On Vinyl, Too!)

2009-11-09T15:08:00.004-05:00

Check it.

Neil Young, the godfather of grunge, whatever the hell that means, is throwing us a big bone this Holiday season. He's releasing remastered versions of his first four solo albums, 1969’s Neil Young and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, 1970’s After the Gold Rush, and 1972’s Harvest.

The sweet part? The special edition box set, with all four albums together on 180 gram vinyl. :drool: Oh yeah, that's the stuff, right there. Looks like you can pick them up a la carte, on 140 gram, if you want it that way. Oh, and if you're still living in the 90's, back when we bought CD's, you can get them on disc, too.

You'd have to work hard to convince me that After the Gold Rush and Harvest aren't his best acoustic-y recordings. There's a lot of pain in those recordings, and Neil Young is at his best when he's hurting. I believe between the three main collaborators here, we have all of these guys on vinyl, as they were issued originally. It'd be a great 'Pepsi Challenge' to line those old pressings up against the new remasters, and see where technology can make the great even better.

In related news, I know what to tell Rosa to get Ryan for X-mas...

Power Rankings - An Idea To Rank Labels

2009-11-09T13:14:00.000-05:00

I envision plenty of album reviews on this blog, but on thing that I think we can provide, that I haven't seen elsewhere, is a Power Ranking style feature on record labels. The methodology is still yet to be invented, fully, but I envision a two tiered system:

Releases from the well known (and even lesser known and/or fledgling) labels would be put through some kind of meat grinder formula, taking into account subjective and objective measures (# of quality releases, our review ratings, maybe even some outside influence from other rating sites?). The end result should give us a Top-10 or Top-25 style ranking, that we can update every month or so. It should be real interesting, over time.

I'd say we'll test the method out a bit, the last couple of months of 2009, and then roll it out officially in 2010.

Welcome to the Indie Dish!

2009-11-09T11:00:00.001-05:00

The Indie Dish is a blog centered around Indie Rock, non-mainstream music, pop culture, and other various things that are awesome. Come here, if you are finding your Pitchfork snark a little too snarky, or if Rolling Stone just isn't covering your favorite band.

Collaborators include Ron, Andrew, and Ryan, three guys who spend too much time listening to music, not to eventually write something down about it.